Explore: Ryukyuan Poetry

The Ryukyuans are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of

The Ryukyuan languages (琉球語派, Ryūkyū-goha; also 琉球諸語, Ryūkyū-shogo or 島言葉 in Ryukyuan, Shima kotoba, literally "Island Speech"), also Lewchewan or Luchuan

collectively called the Ryukyuan people, named for the former Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1875) that ruled them. The varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally

[ʔut͡ɕinaːɡut͡ɕi]), or more precisely Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa

survives today of earlier forms of Ryukyuan music and dance. Though reflective of ancient folk traditions, the poetry also reflects the intricate links

additional branches, the latter perhaps the most divergent of all. The Ryukyuan languages of Okinawa Prefecture and the southern islands of Kagoshima Prefecture

the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language. There have been

by his Japanese-style name Shitahaku Ueekata Tenshō (志多伯 親方 天将), was a Ryukyuan aristocrat and bureaucrat in the royal government of the Ryūkyū Kingdom

language and literature. (He was also a pioneering scholar of the Ainu and Ryukyuan languages.) His many works include the first translation of the Kojiki

shunned the worship of other gods and devoted himself to Apollo alone. Poetry containing distinctly Orphic beliefs has been traced back to the 6th century