OKINAWAN STUDIES: LANGUAGE, CULTURE, HISTORY

Okinawa is considered one of the best-researched areas in the world. This is due to its geographic position, its long history as a maritime trade hub, its forced assimilation into the Meiji-state at the end of the nineteenth century, and its unique language, culture and modern history. In this course, we touch upon many of these issues and take a tour de horizon of Okinawan Studies that involve history, literature, political science, musicology, anthropology and sociolinguistics.

Students of this course will be provided with fundamental knowledge about Okinawa that surpasses the often cliched and incomplete perceptions about this region. They will be able to critically and indepently reflect on Okinawa and on cultural and linguistic diversity in Japan.

Students will have to read and discuss a text per week. No prior knowledge of Okinawa is required.

1. Introduction to Okinawan Studies I
2. Introduction to Okinawan Studies II
3. The Ryukyu Kingdom
4. Assimilation by Japan
5. Colonization
6. Ryukyuans in the Japanese Empire
7. Amamian diaspora in mainland Japan
8. Reversion to Japan
9. Meiji-period Okinawan literature
10. Occupation-period literature
11. Ryukyuan music
12. Tourism
13. Language endangerment and reclamation
14. Ryukyuan languages: Okinawan
15. Okinawa and Okinawan Studies today

Akamine, Mamoru (2017) The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Bhowmik, Davinder L. & Steve Rabson (2016) Islands of Protest: Japanese Literature from Okinawa. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Blaxwell, Vivian (2010) Preparing Okinawa for Reversion to Japan: The Okinawa International Ocean Exposition of 1975, the US Military and the Construction State. Asia-Pacific Journal 8(29).
Figal, Gerald (2012) Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Gillan, Matt (2011) Songs from the Edge of Japan: Music Making in Yaeyama and Okinawa. Burlington: Ashgate.
Hein, Ina & Isabelle Prochaska-Meyer (eds) (2015) 40 Years since Reversion: Negotiating the Okinawan Difference in Japan Today. Vienna: Vienna University Press.
Heinrich, Patrick (ed.) (2021) Liminal Island: Essays on Yonaguni. Jesi: Skinnerboox.
Heinrich, Patrick & Masahide Ishihara (2017) Ryukyuan languages in Japan. In: Corinne A. Seals & Sheena Shah (eds): Heritage Language Policies around the World. Abingdon: Routledge: 165-184.
Heinrich, Patrick, Shinsho Miyara & Michinori Shimoji (eds) (2015) Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages. Boston: de Gruyter Mouton.
Ishihara, Masahide et al. (2019) Ryukyuan Sociolinguistics. In Patrick Heinrich & Yumiko Ohara (eds): The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics. Abingdon: Routledge: 25-42.
Kerr, George H. (2006) Okinawa: The History of an Island People. Tokyo: Tuttle.
Matsuda, Hiroko (2019) Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonia Taiwan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Molasky, Michael (1999) The American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa: Literature and Memory. London: Routledge.
Molasky, Michael S. & Steve Rabson (2000) Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Nishioka, Satoshi (2006) Okinawago no nyūmon: Tanoshii Uchinaaguuchi. Tokyo: Hakusuisha.
Rabson, Steve (2012) The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Rots, Aike P. (2019) Strangers in the Sacred Grove: The Changing Meanings of Okinawan Utaki. Religions 10 (298).
Smits, Gregory (2019) Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Vogt, Matthias Theodor (2025) Report from the Ryūkyū Archipelago. Görlitz: Institut für kulturelle Infrastruktur Sachsen.

There will be no exam in this course. Instead, participants must develop a short thesis (5-7 pages) focusing on one aspect of Okinawan Studies. This allows students to practice and improve their academic writing.
The thesis needs to be composed of (1) an introduction [what is discussed, why, and how], (2) a main part [the main arguments of the discussion paper], and (3) a conclusion/outlook [what has been learned and why does this matter]. The thesis needs to follow the style conventions for a graduation thesis. A style sheet (vademcum) is uploaded on the course's Moodle page.

(Students taking the course remotely must read all texts and study the slides uploaded on Moodle. They also need to write a thesis. The literature assigned for reading and the thesis will be discussed during the exam.)

written

Students will present a topic of their choice to the class (20 min), which they will then develop into a 7-8 page-long thesis (tessina). The thesis will be discussed in an oral exam. The vote is based on the tessina and the oral exam with equal weight.
Regarding the grading scale, scores will be assigned according to the following schema:
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of: Sufficient knowledge and applied comprehension of the program;
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of: Fair knowledge and applied comprehension of the program;
C. Scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of: Good or excellent knowledge and applied comprehension of the program;
D. Honors will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and applied comprehension of the program.

Critical reading and discussion, and group work.