Sacred sites: Symbolic configurations of the On and agricultural rituals in the Yaeyama Islands

Abstract

The Yaeyama Islands, located in the southwest of the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan, present a great variety of rituals and festivities dedicated to the deities (kami) of the communal sacred sites (utaki/On). These annual events, linked to the agricultural cycle, are carried out on the basis of specific social organizations, and have the purpose of thanking for the crops, asking for health, and ensuring fertility for the coming year. Through these acts, a range of considerations and principles linked to a worldview and a belief system are unfolded, which are perceived through conceptions of space and time, as well as symbolic forms expressed in the composition of the sacred site.