Cultue of Fishing People in Ishigaki Island and Its Transformation

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The aim of this research is a production of ethnographically informed description of culture of fishing people in Ishigaki Island and its process of transformation in a contemporary Japanese society. Among the fishing people in Ishigaki this research has focused on divers whose ancestors migrated from Itoman village on the main island of Okinawa.Japanise folklorists and some social anthropologists have investigated these divers already, however, they relied mostly on interviews without participant observations. The information presented in this report is the result of intensive paritipant observation.Folk terms for kinds of fish, various means of technology, local names for fishing grounds, and varieties of knowledge on behaviors of fish are presented along with 60 photographs in the appendix.Fishing people in Ishigaki area have been severely affected by the intrusion of tourism from the mainland Japan. Inthe discourses of tourism on Okinawan culture Okinawa has been depicted as islands of sun and sea, a tropical resort, in short. Such a depiction is foreign to most Okinawans except for fishing people. The fishing people have begun conducting their own tours to educate tourists on their own culture. The conclusion of this research is that tourism does not necessarily destroy a traditional culture as often assumed, but could induce from the fishing people responses clearly pointed toward the creation of cultural identity.