The kimigami, royal ancestral and guardian deities historically served by the Ryukyu Kingdom's priestesses, and the utaki, the sacred groves and sites where they and other local deities are addressed, together with ancestral kami honoured in the same rites, in the indigenous religion of the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, chiefly Okinawa. Ryukyuan religious authority was historically organised around a hierarchy of women priestesses, the noro, headed by the kingdom's high priestess, a structure distinct from mainland Japanese Shinto even though the two traditions share the word kami.
Facts
Structure
Structure of the PantheonLocal and lineage cults gathered under one name, with no single frame 1 Divine HeadshipNo sovereign; the gods act as peers 1 Succession Between Divine GenerationsOne divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationDocumented in the outside record from the 16th century, when the Ryukyu court began compiling the Omoro Soshi; held by its custodians to be older 1 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Cult
Principal Cult CentreSefa Utaki on Okinawa, the highest of the utaki, with observance otherwise held at the utaki of each village 1 Organisation
Membership of the PantheonEvery place, clan and lineage adds its own 1 How Mortals Enter the PantheonAncestors and founders become objects of cult 1 Sources
Primary SourceThe Omoro Soshi, the anthology of ritual song compiled for the Ryukyu court in the 16th and 17th centuries, with published ethnography 1 Connections
Associated With
This source names Japan directly: "of the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, chiefly Okinawa."
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Ryukyuan Religion (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationIn Group: Pantheons of Southwest China and the Ryukyu Islands, Introduction, sentence 1Quote, In Group: Pantheons of Southwest China and the Ryukyu Islands, Introduction, sentence 1
The Ryukyuan religion, Ryūkyū Shintō (琉球神道), Nirai Kanai Shinkō (ニライカナイ信仰), or Utaki Shinkō (御嶽信仰) is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu Islands.
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