Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)

When the dead call: Okinawan Ancestor Worship in Brazil
Victor Hugo Kebbe

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the practice of ancestor worship performed by
Okinawan descent in São Paulo, Brazil. This paper was based on an extensive ethnographic
research in the city of São Paulo, in which the author conducted a series of interviews withreligious experts such as the Yuta, as well as visiting other religious centers of great
acceptance among the Okinawan descendants. With several descendants now in the seventh
generation and 20,000 kilometers far away from Okinawa, we can observe through thepractice of ancestor worship changes and transformations in the perceptions of family andkinship among these people, bringing serious issues to Social Anthropology. We could findnew the ways in which religious hybridity affect the perception of these descendants of what
the Okinawan traditions and Okinawan Spirituality are, on how they affect their daily life.
The author intended to identify new forms of hybridism, not only religious, but also cultural,in this diasporic contexto. Such hybridisms seem to denote a great capacity for inventivenessand performance among the Okinawan descendants nowadays.
Keywords
Okinawa, Kinship, Shamanism, Religion, Japanese Brazilians, Religious Hybridity
1. Introduction
In this paper, I intend to cover an analysis of the Okinawan spiritual dimension when
faced with kinship and the migratory phenomenon, i.e. the diasporic context of Okinawan
descendants living in São Paulo and on how they face Okinawan traditions and religious
hybridity. Dating from 1908 with the first Japanese immigrants arriving in Brazil, theimmigrants from Okinawa, and subsequently, some of their descendants, are facing daily
battles to maintain the pre-migration traditions and Okinawan religion, the ancestor
worship and, later associated with the notion of spirituality. At first, how Okinawan descentreconcile traditions, family and religion, with many of them already considering themselves
as detached from Okinawan culture? Secondly, this diasporic situation is important because
it can show us the transformations over time and when confronted with different contexts
such as the Brazilian society and its religious backgrounds.

92『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
Related to kinship, Okinawan spirituality is commonly confused as a set of Okinawan
traditions, which for some has been “lost” or “abandoned” over the generations. The
structural detachment, particularly when discussing kinship, becomes evident when
Okinawan descendants fail to perform the ancestor worship, or when they do not assume
the idea of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and other ancestors as fully
active in the life of the living.
As a structural repair, such as observed in northern Japan by Ellen Schattschneider(Schattschneider 2001; 2003; 2004), ancestral spirits return to the lives of the living causing
a series of misfortunes, with spiritual debts that cross generations. With the aid of religious
experts, such as the noro and yuta, the messages from the ancestors and its interpretations
come to the living relatives, demanding an approach or rapprochement with the Okinawan
traditions, a spiritual dimension long neglected. This reflection on the notions of tradition
itself is particularly interesting as it enables us to observe the inferences of the diasporiccontext in the formation and invention of new traditions (Yanagisako 2002), marked in thiscase by religious hybridity (Mori 2008; 2012).
We have younger Okinawans suffering all sorts of spiritual problems, on account of the
supposed abandonment of the Okinawan traditions. Some of the most common dilemmas
faced by these Okinawan descendants are problems within the family, or financial
difficulties that persist among family members over generations, in addition to cases ofhealth problems that afflict some individuals and which may originate in spiritual matters.
Here we have at least two questions that deserve to be investigated, first a) to understandwhat the Okinawan descendants in Sao Paulo city calls by tradition, something that iscontinually reframed, invented and reinvented (Yanagisako 2002). Secondly, we have aunique chance to observe b) the modulations and changes in kinship when faced withreligious-spiritual dimension.
In some occasions, I adopt the term "spirituality1" as a starting point of this analysis, forbeing a native expression commonly spoken by Okinawan descendants during my fieldwork,

1 I

recognize the complexity of the term, especially on its use in Social Anthropology,

adopting here just because it was quite heard in the field. "Spirituality" and the syncretic
practices associated generally implies contact with "spirits" of various levels, whereas theancestor worship as practiced in Okinawa and its variations in Brazil generally turn to theplane of kinship. However, I have observed some cases in field research in which the uses
and understandings of such notions are confused, opening a powerful field of analysis. Thisis possible due to the syncretic religious systems operating in Brazil, as observed by Bastide(2001), Brown and Bick (1987).

93Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)
but also because of the complexity of this dimension of the Okinawan daily life, some of themfrequently associated with the Shamanic practice of mediums as the yuta, or even in theparticipation of specific religious centers for these cases. As observed by Mori (2008; 2012)
and André (2007; 2011), this diasporic context is permeated by various processes of religious
syncretism and cultural hybridity, presenting a synthesis of various dimensions, whoseboundaries between them are visibly blurred.
As Shinto and its hybrids in Japan and in the world (Yamakage 2006), it is virtuallydifficult to adopt the term "religion" in the present case, as a sealed box supported andrecognizable by its dogmas. As pointed out by Hendry (2013) and Nakagawa (2008), it istechnically problematic to adopt the category "Religion" as conceived in the West, for theJapanese case: in this case, the researcher must be sensitive to the hybrids and the pluralityof practices found in Japan.
According to Robinson (1969), the spiritual practices in Okinawa is a mixture of nativeand external influences, in which different densities are difficult to be measured. It can beseen traces of the Shinto interference, Taoism, Confucianism and various Buddhist schools.
In the Brazilian case, we need to consider not only the diasporic phenomenon thatapproximates Brazil, Okinawa (and Japan, if we consider all Japanese immigration to
Brazil) (Lesser 2000; 2003; Mori 2003; Sakurai 1999), but also the complex Brazilian
religious system because of the syncretism and hybridization processes (Bastide 2001;
Brown & Bick 1987).
To conduct an analysis of the complex relationship between kinship, migration andreligiosity, this research comprised an ethnographic research on several fronts, held in thecity of São Paulo, Brazil. Using the idea of a thick description (Geertz 1989) and aware of
the discussions about ethnographic authority (Clifford 1988), I had as main objective tounderstand through the native categories the meaningful practices of the life experience of
this group when confronted with varied perceptions of Family and kinship. I conducted
several semi-structured interviews the years 2013, 2014 and 2016 not only with religious
specialists like the yuta, but also attended religious spaces like the Love for Jesus Spiritist
Center (popularly known as Little House, as will be discussed in this paper). As acounterpoint, I also accompanied several families of Okinawan descendants in the cities ofSão Paulo, Araraquara and Presidente Prudente.
2. Okinawa in facts
According to Beillevaire (2003), little attention is given to the Okinawan cosmology inthe research academy. What we know about the Okinawa cosmology comes from the Omoro

94『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）

Soshi, a compilation of poems and shamanic songs of Okinawa and Amami Islands (Drake
1990; 1996) and records made by visitors from China and Japan (Sered 1999). Establishedinitially as the Ryūkyū Kindgom in 1429, Okinawa comprises 140 islands southwest ofJapan, of which only 36 are inhabited (Turnbull 2009).
Situated between Japan and China, since its beginning the Ryūkyū Kingdom remained
as an independent political entity, establishing political and economic ties in the area. It isinteresting to note the development of Shuri language, and a system of values, kinship anda distinct religion system totally different from the Japanese.
This strategic position of Ryūkyū was a strong reason for the Japanese Satsuma
Expedition in 1609, thus establishing an advanced post to contain possible Chinese or
Korean invasions (Turnbull 2009). After more than two centuries paying tributes to feudal
Japan, Okinawa was finally annexed to Japan in 1871 in the middle of the Meiji Era,
forming an archipelago known until today as the Nansei-shoto (the Japanese Southwest
Islands).
Despite a number of similarities between Japan and Okinawa, due to the spatial
arrangements of the islands, they have gone through different historical processes,
attracting the attention of scholars in the 1920s and 1930s, with the efforts of folklorists
such as Yanagita Kunio, Orikuchi Shinobu and Yanagi Sōetsu. In these early efforts,
Okinawa and ryūkyūan culture were categorized as an initial or primeval "civilizing stage",considered by some as the roots of Japanese culture.
On the differences between Ryūkyū and Japan, we can see the variances of the ancestor
worship, cosmology and kinship systems in ways that affect the lives of their descendants
living outside the archipelago. As pointed out by Kerr (2000), Mori (2003; 2012), Sered (1997;1999) and Turnbull (2009), such particularities acts as the main engine to form distinct
identity perceptions averse to a Japanese national identity, which can also be seen among
Okinawan descendants in Brazil.
With the Japanese Immigration to Brazil starting in 1908, we observed the beginning ofa powerful transnational phenomenon, with several Okinawan (and Japanese) immigrants
arriving in Brazil and establishing the biggest concentration of Japanese descendants
outside Japan (Silva 2012). Up to its seventh generation of descendants, we can consider the
Okinawan migration to Brazil a diasporic phenomenon that maintains, updates and invents
new ties and traditions between Brazil and Okinawa/Japan.
The growing number of community associations and its activities in São Paulo city is justan example of the attempt to maintain a pre-migratory culture, which is, according to Mori

95

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)(2003), a continuous process of "reinvention". First, I intend to introduce some aspects of the
Okinawan kinship and how it’s seen among the Okinawan descendants in Brazil.
3. Okinawan KinshipOkinawan kinship 2 presents a diversity of practices and customs according to the spatial
arrangement of the archipelago's islands. Such variations can be found in Okinawan
cosmology, funerary customs and the ancestor worship (Smith 1974). These practices can beverified by the large amount of ethnographies focused on Okinawa, most of them available
only in Japanese (Baksheev 2008). At the same time, similarities with the japaneseprimogeniture system are notorious, indicating possible exchanges with Japan in ancient
times, especially as observed in the burial customs (Noguchi 1966).
In this familial system, the emphasis is on primogeniture, thus the eldest male childinherits the name of the munchū and its duties, aiming to maintain the social position andpolitical status that it has in the community. Hence, younger sons have less family pressure
for marriage, and they are those who promotes the expansion of munchū through theestablishment of several branches of the family name.
According to the Okinawan cosmology (Baksheev 2008; Beillevaire 2003; Mabuchi 1980),
the spatial arrangement of Okinawan houses (yaa) and its own internal arrangements(Beillevaire 2003; Mabuchi 1980; Tanaka 1977) are mainly marked by kinship relations,whose logic of the munchū transcends the past, present and future, defining the community
as a perpetual entity (Tanaka 1977).
Okinawan kinship keeps a very specific relationship between uya-faafuji (ancestors andparents) and Kwaa-maaga (offspring). In this system, the ego is framed in a hierarchy,
indicating perpetual obligations of duties and responsibilities to the uya-faafuji. At the sametime, he/she must sustain the transmission of family traditions to the Kwaa-maaga. In thislogic, the head of munchū has the obligation to take care of his family and to ensure thesocial relations of his munchū with others. At the same time, he must keep and strengthen
the relations with his parents and his ancestors (Tanaka 1977).

2 We can observe a great diversity of practices and arrangements of kinship in Okinawa,

widely discussed with several ethnographies conducted in the archipelago, some of which I
highlight the work of Baksheev (2008), Beillevaire (1982; 2003), Inoue (2007), Lebra (1966),
Owehand (1985), Smith (1974), Noguchi (1966) and Tanaka (1977). My purpose here is justto outline some common points, some of which have been mentioned by my interlocutors infield research.

96

『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
According to Tanaka (1977) and her study at the Inoha Village, Motobu, in this kinshipsystem there is the importance of blood as substance that ensures unchangeable and nontransferable properties, so A is related to B, showing a symmetrical and bilateralrelationship between father and mother (Tanaka 1977; Inoue 2007). On the other hand,semen acts as a second substance which defines the line of succession of agnatic descendants,
and thus the arrangement and the perpetuation of the munchū over space and time. Whileblood can be diluted in the offspring (considering the father's blood combined with themother's blood), semen acts as a fixed or unchanging substance that persists for several
generations (Tanaka 1977).
Thus, a girl or woman ends up being the end of the line for the transmission of themunchū, even if she is the result of a perfect combination of the father’s blood and themother's blood, because she cannot transmit the semen. According to Noguchi (1966) andTanaka (1977), this is reflected in the Okinawan funerary customs, because only after thedeath of her spouse that she can be reabsorbed into the patrilineal lineage of her husband.
In the case of no male heirs, it is allowed to the family to adopt a relative of the father's
lineage in order to guarantee the continuity of the munchū (Mori 2012).
Tanaka (1977) points out that in Inoha there is a cosmological explanation for the kinshipties. In this case, inn is a force that acts as a universal law. The inn justifies the filial loveof Kwaa-maaga towards uya-faafuji, just like the Greek notion of Fate in Fortes (1959),
something that should be understood and practiced by all members of the family, otherwise,
those who are ignorant to such dictates are considered "non-human" (Tanaka 1977 : 37).
Thereby, the most important motivation for the filial love is the recognition andmaintenance of humanity (chu), hoping, when worshiping the uya-faafuji and otherancestors, 1) the Okinawan descendants can guarantee luck and protection; but also 2) thesedescendants do not lose their humanity (Tanaka 1977).
One way to understand the Okinawan kinship and especially in the ways it updates itself
over time, is approaching to the notion of société à maison or House Society for Lévi-Strauss(1986, 1991, 1996). Lévi-Strauss (1986, 1991, 1996) had already perceived societies scatteredaround the globe that are not necessarily oriented in families, lineages or clans, and a new
definition is needed to explain these societies where kinship forms are made in different
ways, encompassing everyone in the idea of House.
The notion of House encompasses a moral person in which it is possible to observe thesocial relations on a daily basis, and yet, because they do not have a language of their own,
they lend and subvert the available language of kinship (Lévi-Strauss 1986; 1991; 1996;
Newell 1976; Silva 2012). Such a notion is very useful for us to understand the complexity

97Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)of this kinship system, and especially in the ways in which it is perceived in Brazil by the
Okinawan descendants, as will be discussed throughout this paper.
4. Kinship and ancestor worship
Ancestor worship plays a key role in Japan (Newell 1976). Considering the Chinese
influences on Asia since from the past, and the practice of honoring and remembering thedead (Baksheev 2008; Robinson 1969), we can find these practices in Japan as well, with
regional variances that should be noted. In case of the Okinawan kinship system, all theliving relatives are obliged to respect, protect and care for the spirits of deceased withofferings and prayers, which can be seen with the ritual care of memorial tablets, all placedin the family altar known as butsudan or buchidan. It is possible to verify the centrality of
the family oratory within the Okinawan family, something that is also felt and observed
among Okinawan descent living in Sao Paulo.
As the Okinawan kinship transcends or overflows time and space, the descendants of
Okinawan around the world are bound by the same bonds of duties and obligations. The
neglect or forgetfulness of ancestors ultimately results in some kind of spiritual sanction:
they become “unhappy”, "cold ancestors" and dangerous, threatening the family withdiseases and misfortunes of all sorts (Tanaka 1977). The possibility of spiritual retribution
ends up being cause for fear among the living relatives.
Distended in space and time in a perpetual entity, Okinawan kinship crosses the seas
and continents, transferring a number of duties and obligations to the new generations,
noted in the statements of my interlocutors in Brazil. "In Okinawa everyone is a relative,
everyone is related to someone" is a recurring expression, something that is transposed to
all the generations of descendants and also a driving force when they want to differentiatethemselves from the "Japanese 3".
Related to the Okinawan kinship, the ancestor worship is a complex ritual of honor andhomage to supernatural entities (Tanaka, 1977). This practice is carried out at various timesof the year, invariably centered on the family altar known as the butsudan or buchidan, apiece of furniture similar to a closet where are placed the memorial tablets with the nameof the deceased (ihai/ihee/ifee), incense, photos of the deceased and offerings of all kinds.
3 It

is interesting to see the Okinawan descendants resort to kinship to perceive thedifference between Japanese (naichi) and Okinawan (Uchinanchu), which was heard in thefield as the Japanese being a “cold people” versus an Okinawan “hot people”. Regardingthese inflections, see SILVA, 2016.

98『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
The butsudan acts as a portal of ancestral spirits, being a sacred space inside the Okinawan
houses.
The services themselves are divided into three types, the kamigutu, or offerings to thedeities or kami, the munchūgutu, the offerings to the patrilineal descent group andgwansugutu, the latter exclusive to the issues of the closest ancestors.
The differences between the Japanese and Okinawan ancestor worship is the persistenceof the ancestors over time. While in Japan the memorial tablets with the names of ancestors
can be duplicated or incinerated as soon as the ancestor ceases to be remembered (after 50
years of death), in Okinawa such tablets cannot be duplicated, nor destroyed (Tanaka 1977).
Thus, it is common to find among Okinawan descendants in Brazil memorial tablets andphotographs of relatives they've never met in their family altar.
Arranged in a perpetual line in time and space, we see how the Okinawan kinshiptranscends Okinawa, with family members all around the world, in this case, with living
and deceased relatives. It is interesting to observe the kinship transformations in different
contexts, such as the case of the Japanese immigration to Brazil, which dates from 1908
with the arrival of the first ship with Japanese and Okinawan immigrants from Japan.
In Brazil we can see these transformations especially at the ancestor worship and how it
is performed according to each family. We can see the yuta, an Okinawan shaman who acts
not only in Okinawa but in Brazil as well, as an important catalyst character who affects invarious ways the daily lives of the Okinawan descendants. Faced with a complex religious
system, the ritual practice of the yuta and the understandings of the Okinawan traditions
undergoes a series of reinventions, transformations and negotiations (Mori 2012), aiming togive account of the symbolic efficacy when confronted with the background and religious
diversity of the Okinawan descendants.
The religious culture of Okinawa is strongly marked by gender, with the women officiallyand publicly leading the religious sphere (Sered 1997; 1999). As spiritual guardians, some
Okinawan women hold a monopoly on the local rituals as the yuta. Women of Okinawa sharethe mundane roles of sisters and daughters in one instance, mothers and wives, but always
considered as sacred beings.
Despite the many similarities with Japanese shamans 4, either in some practices and theuse of certain ritual objects and in some functions, the Okinawan shamans have different
4 Japan has a vast amount of shamanism practitioners in various parts of the archipelago,

with profound similarities in queries, functions, rituals, music, utensils, etc. The most
famous shamans are the itako, gomiso and kamisama in Honshu, tsusu among the Ainu of99

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)
characteristics, in particular for maintaining the use of a ritual repertoire that comes from
China (Sered 2004). According to Takiguchi (1990), the Okinawan shamans occupy a liminal
space within the Okinawan society, as can be seen between the kankakariya of Miyako,
Okinawa:"By definition the shaman is a liminal being. He is a mediator between thisand the other world; his presence is betwixt and between the human andsupernatural. In a trance, possessed by the divine force, he becomes thefocus of fervent attention of the client and seance audience. Manifesting thepower of the gods, the shaman indicates what is causing the extravagant
behavior of a usually frugal and submissive housewife or ensures the
success of the enterprise that an ambitious businessman has justundertaken. Incarnating the ancestor suffering from severe punishmentsin the afterworld, he moans with pain, asking for pacifying rituals (...). The
role the people of Miyako assign to their shamans roughly corresponds tothat of " folk therapist "-religious figures who find out causes of domestic
and personal troubles and solicit divine support to solve them throughritual and divination." (Takiguchi 1990:1)
Sered (1999) shows that the Okinawan women occupy three specific functions, such as

noro/nuru, highlighted originally by Shuri government when Okinawa was still Ryūkyū; thekaminchu, divine persons directly connected to the community; and the yuta, those who deal
with divination and worldly affairs.
The yuta or the Okinawan shaman/medium, acts more directly on individual and on
family level (Knecht 2009). They work on the mediation between individuals with the
Okinawan cosmology and they can see things that ordinary people cannot see (Sered 1997;1999). They can make predictions for the future, identify causes of misfortune, read thesacred books and guide how the deceased should be buried, making the connection between
the world of the living with the world the dead (Sered 1999).

Hokkaido, the noro/nuru, kaminchu and yuta in Okinawa (Sasamori 2004). Usually,
Japanese shamans are women, known by the broader term of miko (daughter of a divine
being), fujo or just fusha (medium) (Kawamura 2003; Knecht 2004). According Knecht (2004),
the Japanese scholars adopt the generic term fujo or fusha to practitioners of shamanism.

100

『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
I’d like to propose that we can see the ancestor worship in the ways of a maussian gift
economy (1950), in which we embed the living with a series of obligations to the dead, being
the deceased obliged to repay the living with ancestral protection. Interrupting this chain of
obligations between the living and the dead implies in a form of spiritual sanction, as saidby Tanaka (1977). Seeing this issue within a structuralist perspective, what happens
actually is a disruption or error of the structure itself and should be repaired as soon as
possible by one of the two parties involved. It is no wonder that the yuta and their spiritual
practice acquires centrality in these cases, because they are the people who offer the healing
processes, also offering the ways to reattach the world of the living with the dead again.
Since the Okinawan kinship pervades spirituality and religion as well, the yuta haveimportant roles in kinship transformations, especially in Brazil, as we’ll see from now on.
5. Case study: Ana and her considerations on Spirituality
With several problems that pervades generations, I must point out a case of a family of
Okinawan descendants in São Paulo city. This particular case shows a family who is still
suffering with the loss of family members, in addition to financial and health problems that
extends for almost a decade.
Descendant of Okinawan and already in the third generation by paternal and maternal
grandparents, since her six-year-old Ana received the visit of spirits, especially one related
to the family, the grandfather she never met in life. With diabetes from birth, Ana had aturbulent childhood combined with ghostly visions and recurring health problems, in which
has always been taught as related to "spiritual problems".
Ana warned me since our first interview: "it is better not start studying the Okinawan
spirituality, because it's too much trouble." Just like Jeanne Favret-Saada recalls (2010:11),
Ana was trying to say or to ask me if “I was strong enough” to begin a research of this kind,showing the huge investment I would have to do to establish a relationship with myinterlocutors in the field.
As a warning, Ana told me that when she was a small child, she woke up at dawn todrink water and walked barefoot to the kitchen. For some unknown reason, his mother woke
up at the same time and followed her, when she starts screaming desperately to herdaughter. Her mother was saying that Ana was dirtying all the kitchen floor with blood
footprints. When washing her feet, Ana saw that there were no injuries at all that could
explain the blood. Saying she had a "uncontrolled mediumship," Ana adds that the101

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)
lightbulbs in the rooms where she walks in starts to burn or blink, in addition to her diabetes
which fluctuates dramatically, with no medical explanation.
A 28-years-old Ana has always moved by various religious institutions, seeking to fill a
gap that she knew since her childhood as a "spiritual gap." Ana had been entrusted with themission of keeping the religious tradition in the family, long lost and that could now cause
endless problems. This mission had been given by a yuta in São Paulo:
Ana - usually the yuta are called (or consulted, in the cases of yuta that is
not going to the house of the families) when the family realizes that it has
strange things happening, usually when the family has financial problems
or some of the children are facing strange things, just like not getting any
job, or when he/she has car accidents or when someone says he or she isseeing a lot of ghosts and visions... or, in more extreme cases, when someone
gets some serious disease. When the family realizes that things are goingbad, they call a yuta to understand what’s happening... since Okinawa has
a huge spiritual tradition, (…) the family usually looks for the yuta trying
to communicate with the family's ancestors, because most of the problems
are directly related to the butsudan.
We can see that Okinawan spirituality or “tradition” is related to Okinawan kinship,
through the figure and key role of the butsudan, the family altar. Ana told me that her
mission had been given by some ancestor, in this case, her paternal grandfather.
Victor Hugo - When was the first time you heard of the yuta?
Ana - When I was 10, when I got diabetes.
Victor Hugo - How was it? Do you remember what she told you? What did
you think on that occasion?
Ana – It was somehow strange, because no one in my family has diabetes,
so I went to see a yuta, who guided me until I was 16 years old. She talked
to my deceased grandfather and said that my diabetes was, in fact, a signof a spiritual mission. I started to cry of fear, then he said that it was not
to be afraid because I had seen him before. On that day, he told me that, as
my father had no male heir, he passed me the responsibility to take care of
the butsudan of my family. In fact, I met a yuta before I had 10 years old,
because of my grandfather. I started seeing him when I was just six years
old. My visions become stronger when I was 10 years old.

102

『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
Victor Hugo – How your parents told you about the yuta?
Ana – They simply said, 'let's go somewhere, to speak to someone to checkyour diabetes'. Then they placed me in the same room with the shaman andshe began to incorporate and I got scared, but I understood what was goingon, because I saw many spirits, especially my grandfather. Then she
incorporated my grandfather and said: 'How long ... you know me, right?'.
At that time, I met several yuta! My parents took me to meet many
spiritualists of all religions, desperate to cure my diabetes. They came tome and told me it was for good reasons, to get cured.
At first, Ana began to consult frequently with yuta, trying to understand the ancestor
worship and the proper rituals to be done at the family altar. This strategy resulted in great
frustration, because she said that "this is the biggest problem, each yuta tells you a different
thing," something already observed by Lebra (1966) when discussing the complexity of
Okinawan cosmology. Because it is based on oral transmission, there is no record of “correct”
healing practices, giving room for inventiveness on an individual basis (Sered 1997; 1999).
Such frustration by "not knowing what to follow" or "what to do" affected Ana’s family.
Over time Ana started to attend Allan Kardec and Umbanda spiritual centers (Brazilian
religion with afro-Brazilian roots), all focused to attend Okinawan descendants. We can see
here the existence of a complex religious system that attends specifically to Okinawan
families in Sao Paulo city, with different nuances of "purity". We can see a fusion of various
religions and esoterisms with and among the yuta practices in Brazil (Mori 2012), focused
to deal with Okinawan descendants who says disconnected from Okinawan traditions. In
these cases, the traditional Okinawan shamanism is not enough to deal or to fix some of thespiritual problems of these Okinawan descendants.
Ana learned at an Umbanda center that their problems were being caused by thepresence of a doomed samurai, unhappy with the spiritual journey of her family. Thissamurai would be the cause of sudden wave of her diabetes, and he could only be appeased
with the offering of a katana, a samurai sword. Ana bought and offered a katana to the spirit,
which became her protector, temporarily unravelling the oscillation of her diabetes.
Despite of not knowing if she was related to that samurai, she suspected to be someremote ancestor. Here we can merge or hypothesize a complex relationship between
Disease/Okinawan Kinship/Umbanda. Because of spirituality, Ana "discovers" new relatives
or, as in this case, reattach or create bonds with "lost" relatives.
Months later, Ana suffered several serious problems. To resolve the issues of her family’s

butsudan, and following the medium guidelines, Ana found out that she needed to add a103

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)
portion of the ashes of her paternal ancestors in her butsudan. To help Ana, her paternal
cousin offered a portion of the ashes of his butsudan, because at the time he was decided toreplace the Okinawan religion by the Allan Kardec’s Spiritism.
Ana told me she knew by the medium that she should take the ashes with a special spoon,something that should be done with great care. At the time, some of the ashes fell to theground and she quickly tried to recover with the spoon. Ana didn’t tell anyone about what
happened.
The next day, his cousin, committed to leave the Okinawan traditions, suffered a severe
stomach bleeding, requiring urgent medical care. Ana recurred to the spiritual center torepair the spiritual problem at the butsudan, getting involved by a ritual that took a few
weeks. Once restored the order on the altar, his cousin recovered almost miraculously andbegan to respect the ancestor worship again.
We can see here the power of the effectiveness of symbols (Lévi-Strauss 1976), in which
spirituality is always orbiting the kinship system. According to Ana, she needs to practiceand develop their spirituality, otherwise, she has health problems and other sorts of
misfortune. Ana was forced to recognize and to respect the Okinawan spirituality at her
childhood, to establish ties with a relative (or relatives) who never met in life (hergrandfather and the samurai), showing complex relations and removing the boundaries andlimits of ancestral kinship, always orbited by the spirituality.
As once told me Shinji Yonamine, seen in the Okinawan community as an expert in the
traditions of Okinawa, it is impossible to dissociate kinship/Okinawan family fromspirituality, because they are actually the same thing. No wonder that Ana’s spiritualjourney coincides invariably with kinship relations.
According Baksheev (2008), Beillevaire (2003), Suzuki (2000; 2013) and Noguchi (1966),
this spiritual journey is extremely important to understand the Okinawan spirituality,
because it mirrors and create multiple intersections between Okinawan cosmology andOkinawan kinship. According to Baksheev (2008), Beillevaire (2003) and Suzuki (2000,
2013), this may be accessed by the study butsudan and its internal logic of organization thatreflects stages and life and death. At the butsudan we can understand the case of Ana's
cousin on how kinship is strongly related to the spiritual practices, incurring in spiritual
sanctions spoken by Tanaka (1977).
Ana attends to an Umbanda center that keeps some Okinawan descendants as members
nowadays. She reaffirms the importance of the spiritual path as something that "improves"and makes her daily life better when facing the spiritual problems. She understands that104

『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
she is not free of new problems, what she thinks inherent to this "discovery process", as she
says.
We can see that Anna learned throughout her life some of the Okinawan traditions, some
Okinawan kinship precepts and she was adjusting her routine in part because of the
problems pointed out by the yuta, psychics and other sensitives. However, Ana says she is
now comfortable at the Umbanda center, showing that this trajectory or spiritual path issomewhat malleable and fruit of a performance capability by my interlocutor: she is hostage
to the ancestor worship or Okinawan traditions, but she seeks to learn other ways of dealing
with it in different ways from those practiced in Okinawa.
6. Dealing with Butsudan in Brazil
The "Little House", as it is called the Love for Jesus Spiritist Center by its participants,
is located near a large concentration of Okinawan establishments in São Paulo city, withthe participation of Kardecists, Okinawan yuta and mediums trained in Umbanda. This
diversity attracts the participation not only of Okinawan descendants in the city, but also of
non-descendants, acting as a prestigious spiritual center in that area.
Love for Jesus Spiritist Center was created in 1963 by a yuta, the deceased mother of theinstitution's current president, acting since then in Okinawan traditions, but also copingwith several religious syncretism aimed at dealing with the spiritual problems of families of
Okinawan descendants in São Paulo.
"At the time my mother founded the ‘Little House’, nobody wanted to be yuta, because it
was a pejorative word. Today is... My grandparents did not welcome my mother as a yuta.
"Says the president of the institution.
With the participation and the help of various parishioners, “Little House”’s mediuns use
blurred definitions of mediumship, with no formal distinctions between Okinawan
traditions, Alan Kardec’s Spiritism or Umbanda in the sessions. Unless when asked directly
about a "title", they designate the sensitive parishioner as a “passista”, someone with theability to "receive" messages. Both the president and her husband have psychic abilities andtheir youngest daughter was already showing signs that she could also access thesupernatural.
The main room of the “Little House” is rectangular, with a main altar with Catholic
imagery and the Holy Mother next to a photograph of a Japanese godfather dressed in the
Meiji period costumes, besides one Okinawan Japanese figure side by side with a picture of
the Japanese Goddess Amaterasu, with various flowers and offerings. On the walls, small

105

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)
signs ask for silence, besides for the use of light-colored clothes and to not cross arms andlegs, these signaling interference in the spiritual reception. According to a Kardecist
medium, a non-Okinawan descendant, she says that crossing arms can interrupt "a currentof energy that comes from space", something that is not found in Okinawan cosmology
according to academic literature.
The mediums and yuta are dressed with white aprons and are seated around a central
table, however, any medium or “passista” can receive a spirit. The other parishioners areseated in two groups of chairs, one for men and one for women. When asked about the hybrid
imagery at the altar and about the reason for two groups of chairs for men and women, thepresident informs to be something inherited from the time of the founders, to avoid "dating".
But we can verify, according to the Okinawan cosmology, the importance of the separation
between Men/Women as something related to “purity”, being the men “purer” in opposition
to the women (Beillevaire 2003).
Held for four times a week, services are organized first with a short introduction
explaining the importance of the ancestor worship, also with recurring problems regarding
spirits of the newly deceased, always followed with the speech of the president and herhusband.
One medium is Dona Tereza, Okinawan descendant who is considered a specialist ofancestor worship and Okinawan kinship. For some times she emphasized how to performthe ancestor worship, followed by the daily prayers, which according to the literature, does
not extend to non-descendants. In these cases, h she said that "it did not matter if you’re an
Okinawan descendant or not, because what matters is the family." Within this concept, thenotion of "spirituality" dilutes other ones such as blood: here blood loses its power as an
identity marker and some criteria to define what is kinship and what is not.
One day the services were held by Olinda. Very friendly, Olinda is considered by everyone
as part of the family, despite not being an Okinawan descendant. As Ana told me once, who
had attended the center in the past, "it does not matter the way to do develop the spirituality,
as long as you do it," finally mining the question of boundaries between Japanesereligions/Okinawan religions/Japanese Brazilians and blood in this case.
After an initial briefing, mediums gather around the main table, some lights are turned
off and they begin to namely call descendants and non-descendants who are in poor health,money problems, and in the case of recently deceased, they always pray citing Our Lord andthe Holy Mother to each name on the list.
After the prayers the mediums begin to receive spirits of the deceased, spirits that canbe a) newly deceased who are lost or do not know in what spirit world he or she is or b)

106『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
evolved spirits that can be relatives of some participant in that day, reporting on the living
problems, ways to solve, etc.
I witnessed a few times the incorporation of Japanese or Okinawan spirits, with themedium leaving the message in Japanese or Uchinaguchi, with no translation for the nondescendant parishioners. In different occasions, Mrs. Keiko, an Okinawan yuta receives
messages and entities in the form of old songs, causing a stir among the present people. As
I once heard in the field, such messages in the form of music are songs of an Okinawan pastthat some heard when they were children at home. After this step, they perform more
prayers, ending with a final prayer to Our Lord and the Holy Mother.
After that the layout of the room is changed, where all mediums begin setting up a mass
when all the parishioners will receive a “pass” or blessing words. At this moment, theparticipants must take off their glasses/sunglasses, watches and other accoutrements that
can hurt the mediums. They organize two rows around the main table, now occupied withpersonal items and water bottles to receive blessings and positive energy. The blessing or“passe” itself is not the same for everyone: the prayers, blessings and gestures depends onthe medium and his/her religious background, except for the use of salt (symbol of
purification in Okinawa) and fluidic water, both distributed to everyone.
After the main services, the “Little House” is opened for a counseling session, which was
forbidden to me to follow. As the president told me, this segment of the service is very
personal and private, where families seek direct assistance of psychics or yuta to address
issues that do not want to expose in public. Counseling sessions are held in different times
and in different locations inside the “Little House”, always seeking the privacy of theparticipants, whose subjects are not revealed or discussed.
The weekly sessions are divided into one for the youth, one for the elder and two open to
everyone, although with no major changes in the session structure, speeches and prayers.
The session for the youth is always preceded by classes teaching how to develop the
mediumship, in which the principles of ancestor worship and Kardecism are taught. Whenthey reach certain degrees of psychic development, these young descendants may or may
not be promoted to “passistas”, receiving a white apron.
In addition to the regular sessions, the “Little House” still holds monthly lectures withspecial guests, "experts" in ancestor worship from different institutions and associations.
They also promote charity events as the annual bingo, always performed with the practiceof mochiyori, with each present bringing a plate of food and some beverages.
All sessions always focus the ancestor worship because, according to the president, it isan unknown ritual practice to the younger generations. The lectures and classes stresses

107Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)
two crucial points that deserve to be mentioned, the first being the importance that should
be given to the figure of the "grandson" or "granddaughter".
Their perception of Okinawan family and Okinawan kinship is focused on the role of the"grandchildren", symbolized by the relationship of love and affection between
Grandparents/Grandchildren, resembling the relationship of the uya-faafuji and kwaa-

maaga as previously discussed in this paper. "The father who has a son will be one day a
grandfather, and his son will be one day a father and also a grandfather and so on,"illustrating the Okinawan kinship as an endless staircase that no matter where is the ego,
he/she is located in the hierarchy.
Another representation discussed by the “Little House” parishioners concerns a tree toexplain the Mutu-ya or simply Mutu, the stem family house, in which we have the ego at
the beginning of the line, then, following a retrospective movement, it results in a bond andprotection of 126 people, considering the family bonds with all the ancestors in this family.
Thus, each person carries family bonds with 126 people (living or dead) that can never be
forgotten. This instance is not found by the academic literature when discussing the“traditional” Okinawan cosmology, probably being a hybrid rereading practiced in Brazil.
It’s also possible to see several reinterpretations of what "Okinawan tradition" andOkinawan Kinship is, mediated by religion or spirituality: considering the effectiveness ofsymbols by Lévi-Strauss (1976), the yuta need to share their practice spaces with otherpractitioners, parishioners and with different religions to be “effective” when attending the
Okinawan descendants in Sao Paulo city.
Here the definitions of kinship and Okinawan traditions are diluted, modulated and resignified by the migratory context, allowing not only the hybridity of several religions(Okinawan shamanism, Spiritism, Umbanda, etc.) and ritual practices that involves the
Okinawan ancestor worship, the proper use of the butsudan and the guidance of the
Okinawan yuta, but also the incorporation of non-descendants in the services. I must say,again, far from dealing with the yuta as the only ones detaining the monopoly of Okinawan
spirituality, we have in Sao Paulo a complex system of various religious institutions, all ofthem working together to fulfill these very specific demands from the Okinawan descent incapital.
7. Final considerations
We can observe a series of transformations not only in the sphere of Okinawan kinship,
but also in ritual practices. Part of this process is the effect of this diasporic phenomenon108『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
initiated with Japanese immigration to Brazil, in addition to its several descendants withthe will to maintain the pre-migratory culture of their parents (Lesser 2000). In Brazil, thesepeople, their traditions and culture are also transformed, now into very dynamic hybrid
forms that simultaneously challenge and enrich the study of culture itself.
As Yanagisako (2002) perceives, as an important effect, the emergence of “new traditions”
referring not only to kinship, but also to what is meant by culture. In the Brazilian case, wemust also consider the powerful religious syncretism already existing in the country,
affecting in unprecedented ways a “hybrid Okinawan tradition”. Mori (2003; 2008; 2012) has
already introduced how these transformations are powerful not only in an Okinawan
Identity discourse, but also in the shamanic practices in São Paulo.
These transformations show, in fact, the ingenuity and performance of these Okinawan
descendants in Brazil, using a series of strategies and alternatives to deal with the"maintenance of traditions" in the country, what Mori (2008; 2012) understands as a creative
reorganization of space and subjectivity, thus creating new identities and new ways tounderstand “tradition”.
Associated with the understandings of a complex kinship system such as the Okinawan
kinship, we perceive the emergence of the performance like never before seen. Given thecomplexity of this kinship system, it is possible to understand, as I have already said on
another occasion (Silva 2016), not only the variety of practices among the descendants of
Okinawan in Brazil, but also the profusion of a great confusion about “what is right orwrong”, “what or how it should be done” in relation to rituals and the Okinawan traditions.
The cause or consequence of misfortune is, according to the yuta, the lack of respect orcare with the ancestor worship, shedding light to serious questions about kinship and family
to be considered by Social Anthropology. In many cases I could see several Okinawan
descendants who feel "stuck", frustrated or forced to adopt and understand perceptions of
Okinawan kinship, family bonds and relationship that they never met or learned in life,
forcing them to reorganize family routines and the family daily life. We have here a disputeof legitimacy and authenticity, on the one side being a “culture from Okinawa” and, on theother hand, its new form, transformed by a succession of hybridisms.
Because of the Okinawan family system still operating, being constructed or reinvented
by the yuta in Brazil, these families are indebted to think and to rethink their family bonds
and more important, to build new ones, new family ties, new family arrangements thatinvolves the inclusion of the dead. In this case, we can see how this transnational migratory
flow between Brazil and Japan affects the family daily life, offering everyday dilemmas thatchallenge our own conceptions of what is family.

109

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)

References
André, Richard Gonçalves
2007“Repensando o Memento Mori: Túmulos Japoneses, Sincretismo Religioso e
Negociações de Identidades Étnicas”, In XXIV Semana de História: Pensando oBrasil no Centenário de Caio Prado Júnior, pp. 1-11, Assis: UNESP.
2011 Religião e Silêncio: Representações e Práticas Mortuárias Entre Nikkeis em Assaípor meio de Túmulos (1932 - 1950), Doctoral Thesis (PhD in History), Assis: UNESP.
Baksheev, Evgeny
2008 “Becoming Kami? Discourse on Postmortem Ritual Deification in the Ryukyus”, In

Japan Review 20: 275-339.
Bastide, Roger
2001 O Candomblé da Bahia, São Paulo: Cia. Das Letras.
Beillevaire, Patrick
2003 “Spatial characterization of human temporality in the Ryukyus”, In HENDRY, Joy(ed.), Interpreting Japanese Society: Anthropological Approaches, pp. 31-41,
London: Routledge.
Brown, Diana; Bick, Mario
1987“Religion, Class, and Context: Continuities and Discontinuities in Brazilian
Umbanda”, In American Ethnologist 14(1): 73-93.

Clifford, James1988“On ethnographic authority”, In The Predicament of Culture, pp. 21-54,
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Drake, Christopher
1990 “A Separate Perspective: Shamanic Songs of the Ryukyu Kingdom: A Brief Historyof Early Okinawa Based on the Omoro soshi by Mitsugu Sakihara”, In Harvard

Journal of Asiatic Studies 50(1): 283-333.
1996 “Okinawan Shaman Songs,” In Manoa, 8(1): 122-129.
Favret-Saada, Jeanne2010 Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fortes, Meyer
1959 “Oedipus and Job in West African Religion. 81 p. Psychoanalytic approach to the
dynamics of primitive religion with the concept that the individual does notunderstand the reasons for his behavior in witchcraft, sorcery, etc. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Geertz, Clifford
1989 A Interpretação das Culturas, Rio de Janeiro: Guanabara.

110『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）
Hendry, Joy
2013 Understanding Japanese Society, Ed. 4, Oxon: Routledge.
Inoue, Masamichi
2007 Okinawa And the U.S. Military: Identity Making in the Age of Globalization, New
York: Columbia University Press.
Kawamura, Kunimitsu
2003 “A Female Shaman’s Mind and Body, and Possession”, In Asian Folklore Studies
62(2): 257-289.
Knecht, Peter
2004 “Characteristic Features of Japanese Shamanism”, In WALTER, Mariko Namba;
FRIDMAN, Eva Jane Neumann(eds.), Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World

Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, Volume 1, pp. 674-680, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
2009“The long road to become a Shaman: A Ryukyu Shaman’s Autobiography”, In

Shaman 17(1&2): 79-101.
Kerr, George
2000 Okinawa: The History of an Island People, Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
Lebra, William
1966 Okinawan Religion: Belief, Ritual and Social Structure, Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press.
Lesser, Jeffrey
2000 A negociação da identidade nacional: Imigrantes, minorias e a luta pela etnicidade

no Brasil, São Paulo: Editora UNESP.
2003 Searching for Home Abroad: Japanese Brazilians and Transnationalism, Durham& London: Duke University Press.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude
1976 Structural Anthropology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1986 Oleira Ciumenta, São Paulo: Brasiliense.
1991 Minhas palavras, São Paulo: Brasiliense.
1996 “História e Etnologia”, In Textos didáticos 24: 1-38.
Mabuchi, Toichi
1980 “Space and Time in Ryukyuan Cosmology”, In Asian Folklore Studies 39(1): 1-19.
Mauss, Marcel
1950 Ensaio sobre a dádiva, Lisboa: Edições 70, 1950.
Mori, Koichi
2003 “Identity Transformations among the Okinawans and their Descendants in Brazil”,
In LESSER, Jeffrey(ed.), Searching for Home Abroad: Japanese Brazilians andTransnationalism, pp. 47-65, Durham & London: Duke University Press.

111

Annual Papers of the Anthropological Institute Vol.7 (2017)2008 “The Structure and Significance of the Spiritual Universe of the Okinawan Cult
Center”, In Revista de Estudos Orientais da USP 6: 175-203.
2012 “Tornando-se uma Xamã Étnica Okinawana no Brasil: A Xamanização como um
Processo Subjetivo e Criativo de Reculturalização”, In Dantas, Sylvia D. (org.),

Diálogos Interculturais: Reflexões Interdisciplinares e Intervenções Psicossociais –Instituto de Estudos Avançados da USP, pp. 27-59, São Paulo: USP.
Nakagawa, Hisayasu
2008

Introdução à Cultura Japonesa: Ensaio de Antropologia Recíproca, São Paulo:
Martins Fontes.

Newell, William H.
1976 Ancestors, Mouton Publishers: Paris.
1980 “Some features of the Domestic Cult Organization in the Southern Ryukyus andTaiwan”, In Asian Folklore Studies 39(2): 23-40.
Noguchi, Takenori
1966“Mortuary Customs and the Family-Kinship System in Japan and Ryukyu”, In

Folk Cultures of Japan and East Asia, pp. 16-36, Tokyo: Sophia University Press.
Owehand, Cornelius.
1985

Hateruma: Socio-religious aspects of a south-Ryukyuan Island Culture, Leiden:
E.J. Brill.

Robinson, James1969 Okinawa: A People and their Gods, Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
Sakurai, Célia
1999“Imigração Japonesa para o Brasil: Um Exemplo de Imigração Tutelada (19081941), In Fausto, Boris (org.), Fazer A América, pp. 201-239, São Paulo: Edusp.

Sasamori, Takefusa
2004 “Japanese Shamanic Music”, In WALTER, Mariko Namba; FRIDMAN, Eva Jane
Neumann(eds.), Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, andCulture, Volume 1, pp. 670-674, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
Schattschneider, Ellen2001 “Buy Me a Bride: Death and Exchange in Northern Japanese Bride-Doll Marriage”,
In American Ethnologist 28(4): 854-880.
2003

Immortal Wishes: Labor and Transcendence on a Japanese Sacred Mountain,
Durham: Duke University Press.

2004 “Family Resemblances: Memorial Images and the Face of Kinship”, In Japanese

Journal of Religious Studies 31(1): 141-162.
Silva, Victor Hugo Martins Kebbe112『年報人類学研究』第 7 号（2017）2012“ 一 期 一 会 : Na vida, única vez: Fabricando famílias e relacionalidades entre
decasséguis no Japão”, Doctoral Thesis (PhD in Social Anthropology), São Carlos:
UFSCar.

2016 “Quando os mortos chamam: Parentesco, Imigração e Religião vistos nas práticas
da Yuta no Brasil”, Research Report (Post-Doctorate in Social Anthropology – SãoPaulo Research Foundation), São Carlos: UFSCar.
Smith, Robert J.
1974 Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan, California: Stanford University Press.
Suzuki, Hikaru
2000

The Price of Death: The Funeral Industry in Contemporary Japan, California:
Stanford University Press.

2013

Death and Dying in Contemporary Japan (Japan Anthropology Workshop),London: Routledge.

Takiguchi, Naoko
1987“Miyako Theology: Shamans' Interpretation of Traditional Beliefs”, In Asian

Folklore Studies 46(1): 3-34.
1990 “Liminal Experiences of Miyako Shamans: Reading a Shaman's Diary”, In Asian

Folklore Studies 49(1): 1-38.
Tanaka, Masako
1974 Kinship and descent in an Okinawan Village, Rochester: University of Rochester.
1977 “Categories of Okinawan "Ancestors" and the Kinship System”, In Asian Folklore

Studies 36(2): 31-64.
Turnbull, Stephen
2009 The Samurai Capture a King: Okinawa 1609, New York: Osprey.
Yamakage, Motohisa
2006 The Essence of Shinto: Japan’s Spiritual Heart (Shinto no Shinpi), Ed. 2, Tokyo:
Kodansha.
Yanagisako, Sylvia Junko
2002

Transforming the Past: Tradition and Kinship Among Japanese Americans,
California: Stanford University Press.

Yanagita, Kunio
1988 About Our Ancestors: The Japanese Family System, Tokyo: Yushodo Co., Ltd.

113