#shimanchu

[transsexualhedgehog]

shimanchu (indigenous okinawan) miku for the miku worldwide thing‼️

she has hajichi (cultural tattooing practice), and wears usinaasugai/ushinchi/ryusou dress with traditional textile bingata and kasuri patterns and a hanagasa hat

[wearejapanese]

Lee A. Tonouchi Special to Da Hawai‘i Herald

My great grandma who wuz born in Okinawa in 1885 had traditional Okinawan hand tattoos known as hajichi. Esteemed Okinawan cultural expert, Eric Wada of da eju-ma-cational group Ukwanshin Kabudan wen do field research on what motivated Okinawan women for get their hajichi. Wada Shinshï (teacher) shares “hajichi was around and in use from pre-contact times so there is no written documentation of exactly when and how it started, however through oral and documented information, it evolved into a woman’s right of passage to adulthood and had many other spiritual connections, such as genealogy, cosmology and social status.”

Growing up my great grandma felt ashamed of her tattoos cuz in Okinawa, Okinawans wuz coming for be made for feel ashamed of everyting Okinawan. When she came Hawai‘i to work plantation, my great grandma wuz so self-conscious that she made my grandma promise that when she ma-ke time, she wanted to be put in da casket with gloves on.

But how could something that wuz once one mark of great cultural pride transform into one mark of shame? Wada Shinshï explains, “hajichi was banned and discouraged after the illegal annexation and overthrow of the Ryükyü Kingdom in 1879, which resulted in implementation of assimilation programs by the Japanese government, which brainwashed the native people to be ashamed of their ‘savage’ cultural practices and assimilate to the modern and ‘civilized’ Japanese culture.”

For da past several decades dis art form for Okinawan women had been dying out to da point where I noticed that most of my younger friends in Okinawa had nevah even seen hajichi before. Das how rare it wuz.

Interestingly, in da past couple few years seems like get one revival going on. Wada Shinshï shares his mana‘o on dis phenomenon: “I am happily cautious about the hajichi resurgence and optimistic because things that have been put to sleep can come back. There will be individuals who just want to do it as a fad or without such deep connections, and that is their choice, but for the most part, I see more interest in reviving the tradition connected to the deeper spirituality and identity.”

Below get tree young Local Uchinänchu women and their hajichi stories.

Read more...

[hiromicota]

Ii soogwachi deebiru!

Which means “Have a happy New Year” in Uchinaaguchi/Okinawan. Kind of. Like most translations, there’s a trade off between functional equivalency and literal meanings. In this case, I went with the functional version.

Here’s the literal one:

ii or yii: good*

soogwachi: first month (and by extension, the new year)

deebiru: is/will be**

So, “This is/will be a good new year” is a more literal translation.

* It’s very likely that both pronunciations being valid is related to why the word for “good” in Modern Japanese is ii or yoi, depending on context. I’ve done absolutely no research into this hypothesis, so take it with a grain of salt. I am a linguist, but I’m not a Japanese-Ryukyuan languages linguist; my specialization is second language acquisition and English language education.

** Kind of. Deebiru is 1 of at least 3 Uchinaaguchi copular verbs. A full explanation is probably beyond my ability at this point. If you’re familiar with Modern Japanese, this is similar to and a cognate with でございます. If you’re not familiar with Japanese, 🤷🏻‍♀️. Wish I could help, but I can’t at this time.

tl;dr Deebiru means “is” or “will be” here, but not necessarily elsewhere.

Bonus

Earlier today, a friend asked me why I use Latin characters to write in Uchinaaguchi instead of hiragana. Part of the reason is because it makes what I write accessible to Uchinaanchu/Okinawans who don’t read Japanese. The rest of the answer is because neither hiragana nor Latin characters are native to Okinawa; there is unfortunately no native writing system, and if I have to pick a colonizer writing system, I’m going to pick the one that doesn’t require weird hacks to make work with Uchinaaguchi phonology. There are a bunch of sounds that Okinawan has that Japanese doesn’t***, and there’s just no good way to write them in hiragana.

Example 1: “gwachi” (month) from the above “soogwachi” isn’t a possible word in Modern Japanese****. I’d need to write ぐゎち to get there, which is kind of goofy. If you don’t read Japanese, that’s like, “Say gu, but drop the u and add a wa, then say chi.” It’s silly, but not super complicated, which is why it’s only Example 1.

Example 2: ‘kwa (child) is pretty understandable for most folks used to reading Latin characters, aside from the apostrophe, which represents a glottal stop, which is the consonant in the middle of “uh oh” and between the Is of Hawai’i. Written in hiragana, it’s っくゎ, which will just straight up baffle most Japanese speakers, because っ is not an OK way to start a word.

Example 3: ‘nma (horse) is one step further, with an upsetting hiragana transliteration of っんま. Neither っ norん are supposed to go before a full syllable in Japanese, and here both of them are.

Example 4: But, wait. We can go one step beyond that! Nnna means “everyone,” and yes, all of those Ns are important; nna, ‘nna, and na are different words. Nnna could be written as んんな or っんな, neither of which will make anyone happy.

So, yeah. I write Uchinaaguchi using Latin characters because using hiragana just seems messy. And I like making what I know accessible to my fellow diasporic Shimanchu.

*** Modern Japanese has the sounds, but can’t use them the same way, because Japanese has a bunch of sound shifts (allophones). Like, はひふへほ are the H morae (syllables-ish), and are theoretically pronounced ha hi hu he ho, except hi and hu don’t actually exist, because the ‘h’ inふ is a bilabial fricative, which is kind of an F sound, but not, and the ‘h’ in ひ is kind of like a cat hissing at you. The S and T morae have similar things going on, with si, ti, and tu being illegal in Modern Japanese, and shi, chi, and tsu replacing them. Uchinaaguchi, on the other hand, is fine with si & shi, ti & chi, and tu & tsu. Still no actual hi or hu in either language, though. Kind of a bummer for me, but at least I get to hiss like a cat when I introduce myself.

**** It was in Old Japanese, though. Maybe Early Middle Japanese, too. I don’t know. I told you I wasn’t a Japanese-Ryukyuan languages linguist. I do know that /gwa/ was actually the Old Japanese pronunciation of ぐわ, making it interesting that /gwa/ is fine in Modern Okinawan, but not Modern Japanese.



[namioshiro]

shimanchu scream 2021 ink on paper

purchase print here

[shimaplaylist]

Haisai, gusuuyoo. I hope everyone is safe and doing well. I teamed up with Nami Oshiro, a fantastic Shimanchu American artist based in Virginia, to create the first three items in an ongoing effort to raise funds for independent Shimakutuba practitioners and projects.

Many Shimanchu creators and educators are doing the work on their own time and out of their own pockets, so I'm hoping that this (and future fundraisers) can be a small show of support and gratitude.

This 3" sticker, 2.25" button, and 1.25" acrylic pin set features a Ramones logo-inspired design with an open-mouth shiisaa symbolizing the sharing of good things, i.e. our indigenous languages. There are several distinct languages throughout the Ryūkyū Islands (all of which are endangered), so we decided to go with the six regions recognized by UNESCO: Amami, Kunjan (Kunigami), Uchinaa (Okinawa), Myaaku (Miyako), Yaima (Yaeyama), Dunan (Yonaguni).

Please visit the Ko‑fi shop today! All proceeds (minus item production costs and shipping fees) will be donated to individuals/groups and I'll post receipts once the donations are made.

P.S. I'm still selling items through the Shimanchu Dushi-nu-chaa Online Sale, if you're interested in combining shipping.

Shiisaa illustration by Nami Oshiro

- namioshiro.com - inprnt.com/profile/namioshiro - etsy.com/shop/iyasasa - instagram.com/nami_oshiro - twitter.com/namioshiro

[wanna-bewitch]

Would it be completely unacceptable to have hajichi as a man? It used to be something I wanted deeply as an AFAB person but er. a long time ago I realized I’m not a woman. Just to clarify, I am Uchinanchu, but sadly I am not as familiar with the culture as I’d like to be.

[kataibusaibiin]

Couple weeks ago, an #Uchinaanchu cousin from #Brazil contacted me after finding me as a DNA match. How awesome we got to "meet" last week via Zoom.

When I got my brother to take a DNA test few years ago to aid in genealogy research of our dad’s / American family, I definitely wasnʻt expecting anyone on my mom’s / Uchinaanchu side of family to show up as matches. But Iʻve been pleasantly surprised by the #Shimanchu cousins Iʻm encountering across the #diaspora.

As I've sifted through various documents and ships’ manifests in search of possible relatives that connect us cousins, I've come across descriptions like those pictured here, which made my heart race as I felt something tug at it and my eyes widen:

"Tattoo marks on back of 2nd and 3rd finger of both hands."

"Tattoo marks on backs of all fingers of both hands..."

Hajichi.

I could almost picture their hands blessed with #hajichi, holding so many stories past/present/future - connecting their lives in Ryukyu islands and journey to new shores with our present and collective memories and all our connected roots in our beloved ʻnmarijima, across #LooChoo.

This manifest is filled with pages of passenger names almost entirely young Uchinaanchu arriving as “farm workers.”

These Shimanchu arrived in Hawai'i as #ImmigrantFarmworkers or traveled on to Mexico, US, Peru, Brazil, Argentina... Many were recruited with promises of guaranteed work, steady pay, and in some cases land or free lodging. Many would discover otherwise upon their arrivals.

My cousins are here now reaching out to each other because somehow the passengers of this ship and others that passed through these ports found ways to persevere. It is important we do our part to remember and learn from them, even if we must dig a little together now to do so.

Whenever I review ship manifests and immigration documents, I often wonder what folks thought and felt as their new home could be seen on the horizon and their future came more clearly into view...

This time, I found myself drawn to the image of these hands... what must they have carried with them on this journey?

[icharibachoodee]

Shimanchu Discord

Haitai! If you are looking for a safe-space to explore your Shimanchu identity or are an ally and want to share resources or learn more about Ryukyuan culture, please join us on the Shimanchu Discord: https://discord.gg/fyGDtqvV6H