#okinawan

[transsexualhedgehog]

shimanchu (indigenous okinawan) miku for the miku worldwide thing‼️

she has hajichi (cultural tattooing practice), and wears usinaasugai/ushinchi/ryusou dress with traditional textile bingata and kasuri patterns and a hanagasa hat

[softsoundingsea]

Ryukyu Clothing (Ryusou/Uchinaasugai - "Kimono")

PSA: I am not a professional dresser or historian and finding this information is more of a cultural hobby. Please correct me if you see any discrepancies.

From a Ryukyuan-language standpoint, I don't think it's appropriate for Ryukyuan clothing to be called "Kimono" because it isn't Japanese. The general term meant to talk about Okinawan clothing in the Ryukyuan Kingdom context is 琉装 (Ryusou in Japanese/Uchinaasugai ウチナースガイ in Uchinaaguchi). I'm calling it "Kimono" here because it's the most easily understandable. Additionally, this post will not include textiles from the Amami or Ishigaki region and focuses on Uchinaa.

Most Ryukyuan clothing is made for the weather of the region, which can be more humid and hot than Japan. Sadly, if there was record of Ryukyuan clothing before the Kingdom era, it's lost to history. Being a region of trade, a lot of clothing takes inspiration from the many cultures and countries the Ryukyus were in contact with (Southeast Asia, East Asia). Textiles that included Bingata, Kasuri, Silk, or Patterns were for those of upper classes.

I think the most well known style of Ryusou is the one that incorporates a Bingata robe over ウシンチー (Ushinchii). The robes were made of silk and was usually worn by the upperclass citizens in the Ryukyu Kingdom. They tend to have larger sleeves for air. It also tends to fit "loose" since it's very easy to sweat in the region. For men and women formal attire consists of a two-piece outer garment worn over an underwear garment.

ウシンチー　Ushinchi

Below is an example of me being dressed in a ウシンチー (Ushinchii) style, which as you can see in this situation the ウシン (Ushin) sash is small. Doesn't always incorporate Kasuri, sometimes it's a solid color. Sometimes it will incorporate other Ryukyuan style clothing.

This is a more formal style of dress but this is an example of one look when they are paired together.

ドゥジン & カカン Duujin and Kakan

There are other clothes for women like one worn by court ladies that are "two pieces" likeドゥジン (Upper piece) and カカン (skirt). They can also have a Bingata robe worn over it. I believe the Kakan is inspired by the Hanfu and Mamianqun.

(Source)

ハチマキ Hachimaki

For formal wear for men in upper classes, the clothes tend to be more simple. They wear a ハチマキ (Hachimaki) which is a hat meant to denote your rank. Men also would tend to wear thicker sashes or obi than women.

(Source)

芭蕉布 Bashofu

For common people, I don't know what the name for the attire would be but it was made of Bashofu (banana fibre). Now the textile is quite rare and sought after but before the war, it was commonplace to wear and typically worn much shorter than a Japanese kimono (around the shins). It was a relatively breathable fabric and the sleeves are more like open sleeves than what a kimono is like.

(Source)

There are more names, terms, and history that I need to learn but thank you for reading this.

[old-powwow-days]

Elk Necklace collaboration between Keri Ataumbi & Jamie Okuma

[kkulbeolyeonghwa]

Month wrap-up

Korean: 383 words this month, the biggest amount this year! This was my main focus this month. Picks of my favorite words from this month:

교대 交代 - taking turns 당청되다 當籤- - to win the lottery 마땅히 - properly 석화 石花 - oyster 일당백 一當百 - equal to 100 warriors 출하 出荷 - shipment

Japanese: only 57 words this time! I feel like I've studied more though. I've gotten better at listening! Favorite words:

いれい 慰霊 - consoling the dead しけ 時化 - stormy weather at sea でんち 電池 - battery よてい 予定 - plans

Mandarin and Cantonese: I haven't focused on these much this month. However I've been listening to both languages a bunch.

Mongolian: I haven't logged the words I know because I'm learning it with a different approach. But I've been studying it a lot and am learning a bunch of new words!

Toki Pona: I can now understand written text 99% of the time. I should practice writing next.

Okinawan: I've learn the Okinawan version of every Japanese word I've studied this month. I'm progressing steadily.

Other languages: I've been learning random words from other languages too. Notably Hungarian (Which I haven't learned at all in the past). Maybe I should start studying it regularly!

[wearejapanese]

Lee A. Tonouchi Special to Da Hawai‘i Herald

My great grandma who wuz born in Okinawa in 1885 had traditional Okinawan hand tattoos known as hajichi. Esteemed Okinawan cultural expert, Eric Wada of da eju-ma-cational group Ukwanshin Kabudan wen do field research on what motivated Okinawan women for get their hajichi. Wada Shinshï (teacher) shares “hajichi was around and in use from pre-contact times so there is no written documentation of exactly when and how it started, however through oral and documented information, it evolved into a woman’s right of passage to adulthood and had many other spiritual connections, such as genealogy, cosmology and social status.”

Growing up my great grandma felt ashamed of her tattoos cuz in Okinawa, Okinawans wuz coming for be made for feel ashamed of everyting Okinawan. When she came Hawai‘i to work plantation, my great grandma wuz so self-conscious that she made my grandma promise that when she ma-ke time, she wanted to be put in da casket with gloves on.

But how could something that wuz once one mark of great cultural pride transform into one mark of shame? Wada Shinshï explains, “hajichi was banned and discouraged after the illegal annexation and overthrow of the Ryükyü Kingdom in 1879, which resulted in implementation of assimilation programs by the Japanese government, which brainwashed the native people to be ashamed of their ‘savage’ cultural practices and assimilate to the modern and ‘civilized’ Japanese culture.”

For da past several decades dis art form for Okinawan women had been dying out to da point where I noticed that most of my younger friends in Okinawa had nevah even seen hajichi before. Das how rare it wuz.

Interestingly, in da past couple few years seems like get one revival going on. Wada Shinshï shares his mana‘o on dis phenomenon: “I am happily cautious about the hajichi resurgence and optimistic because things that have been put to sleep can come back. There will be individuals who just want to do it as a fad or without such deep connections, and that is their choice, but for the most part, I see more interest in reviving the tradition connected to the deeper spirituality and identity.”

Below get tree young Local Uchinänchu women and their hajichi stories.

Read more...

[bimdraws]

Queer Polyglot/Language Learning Community

Do you speak or have resources in any of these languages? I'm building an online dictionary of queer-related words (anything regarding sexuality, romantic orientation, gender expression, intersex traits, etc).

The languages I still haven't manage to get much from are (in no particular order):

Hmong

Yagan

Aonikenk

Manchu

Jeju

Okinawan

Ainu

Kakán

Ossetian

Even if you don't speak any of these, but you speak a language few people know, I'd love for you to reach out.

[akkkkkkkkkkka]

Okinawan Verbal Morphology / 沖縄語の動詞形態論

Okinawan has an agglutinative morphology which involves “glueing together” bits of information. This is very similar to languages such as Japanese and Korean.

Okinawan, and many Ryukyuan languages, have retained some grammatical forms now obsolete in Modern Japanese. One of these is the attributive form. The present and past tense of verbs in Okinawan inflect for the attributive form, as well as a terminal form ie the dictionary form. However, other innovations have occurred in Okinawan such as losing the object marker and the subject and genetive marker sounding phonetically the same in certain contexts. In this lesson I will only teach the plain form to introduce the basic verbal morphology. I will also not be teaching the specific conjugation rules. A full list of tenses can be found at the end under further reading.

NOTES:

In all lessons, romanisation will not be used. A full guide to hiragana will be attached under further reading.

Lessons will include a colour code: new terms and concepts will be blue and feature focuses will be red. The words in blue will be defined at the bottom of the page under definitions.

Further reading gives additional resources which will help in your study of Okinawan.

Affirmative:

Present:

The present tense ending is simply the dictionary form of a verb.

For example:

咬むん(かむん) - to eat; (I) eat

言ん(っゆん) - to say; (I) say

考ーゆん(かんげーゆん) - to think; (I) think

聞ちゅん(ちちゅん) - to hear; (I) hear

話すん(はなすん) - to speak; (I) speak

Past:

All past tenses comprise of an alveolar consonant (or avleolo-palatal) + aん:

〜たん,〜ちゃん, 〜だん, 〜じゃん

For example:

咬だん - (I) ate

言���ゃん - (I) said

考げーたん - (I) thought

���ちゃん - (I) heard

話ちゃん - (I) spoke

Negative:

Present:

The negative is a little bit less predictable since they are a mixture of alveolar sounds, [k] and [m]. They also are of the structure aん like the affirmative tenses:

あん, かん, がん, さん, らん, まん, だん

For example:

咬まん - (I) don’t eat

言やん(っやん) - (I) don’t say

考げーらん - (I) don’t think

聞かん - (I) don’t listen

話さん - (I) don’t speak

Past:

The past negative is actually pretty simple, it comprises of the negative form plus たん:

あんたん, かんたん, さんたん etc

For example:

咬まんたん - (I) didn’t eat

言やんたん - (I) didn’t say

考げーらんたん - (I) didn’t think

聞かんたん - (I) didn’t listen

話さんたん - (I) didn’t speak

Attributive:

The attributive form is made by removing ん and adding る in the present and present negative.

Examples:

広いさる（ふぃるさる）猫（まやー）- A big cat

話さんたる女子（うぃなぐ） - A woman who didn't speak

Conclusion:

This lesson was focused on the plain form present, past, negative and past negative forms. This was by no means a detailed guide of the individual rules. The attached Google Doc will give more information on the specific conjugation types arranged into tables. It also has other forms including the passive, desiderative and causative among others. That Doc will give the detail that this lesson was missing simply because there’s not much to say on the specific conjugation types that can’t be included in tables.

> Definitions:

• Agglutinative - from the Latin “agglūtinō”, “to glue (together)” which involves adding morphemes to a root. These morphemes usually don’t mean much (if anything) on their own. This is contrasted with fusional languages where one morpheme can be used in different situations and these are usually “words” as defined in English.

• Attributive Form - a form of a verb to use it to describe anything (in this case) after it ie as an adjective

• Object Marker - marks the object of a sentence ie the thing that the verb is affecting eg I eat watermelon, “watermelon” is the one receiving the “eating” - Japanese: 私は西瓜を食べる (watashi wa suika wo taberu), “wo” = object marker, marking “suika”. Okinawan: 我んねー西瓜咬むん (wannee shiikuwa kamun), lack of an object marker unlike Japanese.

• Subject Marker - the subject and topic markers are very similar in usage and both handle information being known or not. The best way to understand the usages is to see them in a sentence.

• Genetive Marker - this shows possession eg 猫ぬ目 (mayaa nu mii) - the eye of the cat. This marker is used in the same position as the ‘s strategy of possession in English eg the cat’s eye; the marker directly follows the possessee.

> Further Reading:

Full Conjugation Tables: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ew99qbNZHqpuNwDHYTzsTEpoLWdD1OANqWVic7LS4I/edit

Hiragana Tables: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Z__i6Ay7wXm1H-40wLTqRKluyz_IlOYrRxrHWDnm8s/edit

[hiromicota]

Ii soogwachi deebiru!

Which means “Have a happy New Year” in Uchinaaguchi/Okinawan. Kind of. Like most translations, there’s a trade off between functional equivalency and literal meanings. In this case, I went with the functional version.

Here’s the literal one:

ii or yii: good*

soogwachi: first month (and by extension, the new year)

deebiru: is/will be**

So, “This is/will be a good new year” is a more literal translation.

* It’s very likely that both pronunciations being valid is related to why the word for “good” in Modern Japanese is ii or yoi, depending on context. I’ve done absolutely no research into this hypothesis, so take it with a grain of salt. I am a linguist, but I’m not a Japanese-Ryukyuan languages linguist; my specialization is second language acquisition and English language education.

** Kind of. Deebiru is 1 of at least 3 Uchinaaguchi copular verbs. A full explanation is probably beyond my ability at this point. If you’re familiar with Modern Japanese, this is similar to and a cognate with でございます. If you’re not familiar with Japanese, 🤷🏻‍♀️. Wish I could help, but I can’t at this time.

tl;dr Deebiru means “is” or “will be” here, but not necessarily elsewhere.

Bonus

Earlier today, a friend asked me why I use Latin characters to write in Uchinaaguchi instead of hiragana. Part of the reason is because it makes what I write accessible to Uchinaanchu/Okinawans who don’t read Japanese. The rest of the answer is because neither hiragana nor Latin characters are native to Okinawa; there is unfortunately no native writing system, and if I have to pick a colonizer writing system, I’m going to pick the one that doesn’t require weird hacks to make work with Uchinaaguchi phonology. There are a bunch of sounds that Okinawan has that Japanese doesn’t***, and there’s just no good way to write them in hiragana.

Example 1: “gwachi” (month) from the above “soogwachi” isn’t a possible word in Modern Japanese****. I’d need to write ぐゎち to get there, which is kind of goofy. If you don’t read Japanese, that’s like, “Say gu, but drop the u and add a wa, then say chi.” It’s silly, but not super complicated, which is why it’s only Example 1.

Example 2: ‘kwa (child) is pretty understandable for most folks used to reading Latin characters, aside from the apostrophe, which represents a glottal stop, which is the consonant in the middle of “uh oh” and between the Is of Hawai’i. Written in hiragana, it’s っくゎ, which will just straight up baffle most Japanese speakers, because っ is not an OK way to start a word.

Example 3: ‘nma (horse) is one step further, with an upsetting hiragana transliteration of っんま. Neither っ norん are supposed to go before a full syllable in Japanese, and here both of them are.

Example 4: But, wait. We can go one step beyond that! Nnna means “everyone,” and yes, all of those Ns are important; nna, ‘nna, and na are different words. Nnna could be written as んんな or っんな, neither of which will make anyone happy.

So, yeah. I write Uchinaaguchi using Latin characters because using hiragana just seems messy. And I like making what I know accessible to my fellow diasporic Shimanchu.

*** Modern Japanese has the sounds, but can’t use them the same way, because Japanese has a bunch of sound shifts (allophones). Like, はひふへほ are the H morae (syllables-ish), and are theoretically pronounced ha hi hu he ho, except hi and hu don’t actually exist, because the ‘h’ inふ is a bilabial fricative, which is kind of an F sound, but not, and the ‘h’ in ひ is kind of like a cat hissing at you. The S and T morae have similar things going on, with si, ti, and tu being illegal in Modern Japanese, and shi, chi, and tsu replacing them. Uchinaaguchi, on the other hand, is fine with si & shi, ti & chi, and tu & tsu. Still no actual hi or hu in either language, though. Kind of a bummer for me, but at least I get to hiss like a cat when I introduce myself.

**** It was in Old Japanese, though. Maybe Early Middle Japanese, too. I don’t know. I told you I wasn’t a Japanese-Ryukyuan languages linguist. I do know that /gwa/ was actually the Old Japanese pronunciation of ぐわ, making it interesting that /gwa/ is fine in Modern Okinawan, but not Modern Japanese.



[kazutransrants]

Okinawan yakuza are very based and cool and people should do some research on them

Imo I don't think they should even be called yakuza, if you're beating up on marines Im not bothered by it. I encourage it

-pissed off uchinanchu

[marsystars]

I love this beautiful diverse family that I'm so thankful to be apart of :>

shout out to forgotten asians.

shout out to south asians: asians from india, pakistan, sri lanka, bangladesh, afghanistan, bhutan, maldives, nepal.

shout out to ignored east asians from countries less romanticized than china, japan, and south korea: to mongolia, taiwan, vietnam, and further southeast to singapore, malaysia, the philippines, east timor, brunei, cambodia, myanmar, laos, thailand, indonesia.

shout out to ethnic groups within more known asian countries, like the tibetan people in china and the ainu and ryukyuan people in japan.

shout out to russian asians. shout out to central asians in former soviet countries, to people from kazakhstan, turkmenistan, tajikistan, uzbekistan, kyrgyzstan.

shout out to western asians in countries that don’t fit neatly into trivial western/european geographical boundaries of the middle east, of south asia, of europe, of africa. 

shout out to mixed asians, to latinx asians, to black asians, to indigenous asians, to mixed south and east asians, and every combination.

asian people are more than just the same few ethnicities shown on tv.

[softsoundingsea]

By Luke Gentile

The FBI announced last week its recovery of at least 22 historical artifacts taken after the American victory at the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.

A deal to return the artifacts to the Government of Japan, Okinawa Prefecture, was arranged via the FBI, and a repatriation ceremony will be held after the artifacts return for the first time in nearly eight decades, according to a release from the FBI Boston Division.

Several artifacts date back to the 18th and 19th centuries and hold a place in the long history of Okinawa, including portraits, a hand-drawn map, pottery, and ceramics, the release noted.

“It’s incredibly gratifying when the FBI is able to recover precious cultural property that has been missing for almost 80 years,” Jodi Cohen, the special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, said.

“This case highlights the important role the public plays in recognizing and reporting possible stolen art. We’d like to thank the family from Massachusetts who did the right thing in reaching out to us and relinquishing these treasures so we could return them to the people of Okinawa,” Cohen said.

Multiple artifacts now returning to Okinawa were registered with the FBI’s National Stolen Art File in 2001 by the Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education, according to the release.

In 2023, the family of a late World War II veteran (who did not serve in the Pacific) discovered some of the valuable Asian art while they went through his personal items, and they found at least four of the works in the National Stolen Art File, according to the FBI.

“It’s an exciting moment when you watch the scrolls unfurl in front of you and you just witness history, and you witness something that hasn’t been seen by many people in a very long time,” Geoffrey Kelly, an FBI Boston special agent and Art Crime Team member, said.

“These artifacts are culturally significant, they’re important pieces of Japan’s identity. These were especially important because they were portraits of Okinawan kings dating back to the 18th, 19th centuries. This case really illustrates part of the work we do on the Art Crime Team. It’s not always about prosecutions and putting someone in jail. A lot of what we do is making sure stolen property gets back to its rightful owners even if it’s many generations down the road,” Kelly said.

Assisting the FBI in the return of the items was the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Asian Art, according to the release.

“The FBI reached out, asked us for some help making sure they knew how to care for the works and that they had a safe place to store them while they worked out the repatriation details. It’s an honor to be able to help the works go back to their home,” Danielle Bennett, the head of collections management at the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institute, said.

You can see all of the recovered artifacts here.

[old-powwow-days]

Pocahontas set 2014

Collaboration between Keri Ataumbi & Jamie Okuma

Yellow gold, brilliant cut diamonds, silk knotted pearl strings with indigenous wampum, and fresh water pearls surround miniature portraits of Pocahontas. This set was purchased by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

[kkulbeolyeonghwa]

My studies this month

This month I've been focusing on other things and I even took a week off for a holiday! So I haven't logged my words or anything, but I can still tell what I've been studying.

Korean: I've been watching the news every day! I haven't been learning many new words this month.

Japanese: A lot of improvement! I can speak a lot more now and understand many new words! My favorite is コヲロコヲロ！

Mandarin: A lot of accidental immersion! I went for a holiday in the city and there were a BUNCH of Chinese people for some reason? I heard an unusual amount of the language this month.

Cantonese: Not much this month either! Watched a few documentaries in the language!

Italian: new language! My friend speaks it and I wanted to have a go! So far so good, seems simple!

Okinawan: I can speak simple sentences now! I need to work on my listening skills...

Ainu: also a new language! I want to focus on this a lot more this month!

French: I read a few news articles, not my main focus!

I've been focusing on conlanging all this time. I need to move my focus back to languages this month!

[nonenglishsongs]

新良幸人×サトウユウ子 (Yukito Ara x Yuuko Satou) - 浄夜(じょうや) (Jouya) (Okinawan)

[takmiblog]

沖縄に行けば日本が見える

　（前略）さらなる転機が１９９６年秋に訪れた。「筑紫哲也NEWS23」のサブキャスターに。前年、米兵による少女暴行事件が起こり、番組では沖縄を何回も特集していた。なぜ沖縄に行くのか。返還前の沖縄の特派員だった筑紫さんはいつもこう言った。「沖縄に行けば日本が見える。この国の矛盾がいっぱい詰まっている」

　その言葉に突き動かされ、初めて取り組んだ沖縄特集のテーマは日米地位協定。米兵による事故・事件の補償の実態を取材した。「こんな不条理があるだろうか」。いつしか先輩ディレクターたちと同様、休日も沖縄に向かっていた。

　筑紫さんは、あれをしろ、これをしろとは言わない人だった。どの企画も「お、いいじゃないか。行ってこいよ」と通した。

　（中略）取材のたびに実感するのは、日本のメディアに沖縄戦後史への認識が抜け落ちていることだ。「戦後の沖縄で何があったかをさらに伝えなければという思いが強まっています」

2024/08/22　朝日新聞夕刊（林るみ）

一語一会

沖縄に行けば日本が見える

TBSディレクター　佐古忠彦さん

ジャーナリスト筑紫哲也さんからの言葉

この国のありよう　伝え続ける

[flagsinthemaking]

Easian4Easian (East-Asian 4 East-Asian

- not for RCTA people.

- Requests open!!

- Easian4 Easian : East Asian ppl who prioritize/prefer/only date other East Asian ppl.

- FLAG ID : 7 striped flag with a Pink Cherry Blossom in the middle.

- COLORS : Dusty Red, Light Dusty Red, Red-ish Pink, Pale Red, Red-ish Pink, Light Dusty Red, Dusty Red

- EXTRA : The colors were chosen due to many Easian flags having red and white in them! The flower is a Cherry Blossom also known as a Sakura, holds cultural significance in Easian Countries. Such as Japan, Korea, and China.