Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands by Arne Røkkum

Author:Arne Røkkum [Røkkum, Arne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Asia, General, Japan, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781134253647
Google: tI2lj9NuuFUC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2006-04-18T01:15:09+00:00

Entanglements capture evil things (madimunu), a pungency exuded by the vines puts them off. I watched people winding the nbaganda around pointed and protruding features of their compound. My neighbor to the west secured a kerosene drum (Figure 3.1) in this way. And I heeded a reminder myself, securing the toilet doorknob and other protruding objects with the creepers received from my neighbor.

Figure 3.1 A protective amulet

As darkness draws on, children are warned not to leave the house. The occasion bespeaks the collective risk of what the Dunang refer to as soul-loss (mabui u’ti). This contrasts sharply with the license allowed for children’s playing outdoors until late at night during the suruŋ, a mid-seventh lunar month memorial for the dead in their more benign roles as enshrined in mortuary tablets and mausoleums. Now, however, is the time, not for invocations, but for visitations. Old ghosts are lurking on the fringes of the village during the siti night, according to an elderly woman of the village, whose munuci skills are in much demand. She recommends people to ignite incense sticks on either side of the compound gate, and in each corner of the courtyard. The luminosity from the glow deters those belonging to darkness.

A winding or wriggling movement of trailing ferns and, in festival processions, of writhing lions – cici – is exorcistic action. A wooden mask with hinged jaws – in red, white, and black and manipulated by young men – bears the image of a Visitor from afar (Figure 3.2).9

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