Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Pantheons

Ryukyuan

Other Pantheons

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

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 Pantheon
Local and lineage cults gathered under one name, with no single frame 1
Divine Headship
No sovereign; the gods act as peers 1
Succession Between Divine Generations
One divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1
Attestation
Era of Attestation
Documented 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 Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Sources
Primary Source
The Omoro Soshi, the anthology of ritual song compiled for the Ryukyu court in the 16th and 17th centuries, with published ethnography 1
Organisation
Membership of the Pantheon
Every place, clan and lineage adds its own 1
How Mortals Enter the Pantheon
Ancestors and founders become objects of cult 1
Cult
Principal Cult Centre
Sefa Utaki on Okinawa, the highest of the utaki, with observance otherwise held at the utaki of each village 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Japan, Countries

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.)
Ryukyu Islands, Regions
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
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.