THE SYNTHETIC STUDY OF OKINAWAN YAEYAMA ISLANDS

自1994年以来，我们的团队一直对位于日本文化圈南端的八山地区的语言、历史、民间传说、文学和建筑进行全面的实地研究。八山群岛的地理位置使其成为日本与中国南部、东南亚国家和其他南方文化的交汇点。八山在历史上一直是这些不同文化与日本之间的桥梁。现存的研究主要集中在北琉球地区，而在很大程度上忽略了与日本南部接壤的南琉球地区。我们认为，对八重山地区的全面研究可以为理解日本文化做出重大贡献。事实上，我们的研究小组发现，在太平洋战争中幸存下来的历史记录、建筑结构和其他有历史意义的材料的数量远远超出了我们的预期。虽然冲绳其他岛屿的地契在战争期间大部分丢失，但留在八山的大量文件将使我们不仅能够澄清琉球的土地所有权制度，而且还能了解萨摩氏族和琉球王国被迫移民的细节。我们的团队调查并描述了一系列的民间建筑，如石垣岛的kabira，以及竹美岛、Hatoma岛和Iriomote岛的定居点。我们希望这些数据对加深我们对琉球和日本传统家庭建筑的理解有很大的帮助。

Since 1994, Our team has been conducting comprehensive field reseach into the language, history, folklore, literature and architecture of the Yaeyama region, which is located at the southern end of the Japanese cultural sphere.The location of the Yaeyama islands has made them a meeting point between Japan and Southern China, the countries of southeast Asia, and other cultures to the south. Yaeyama has historically served as a bridge between these various cultures and Japan.Extant research has concentrated on the Northern Ryukyuan region and has largely overlooked the Soutuern Ryukyus, which borders these cultures to the south of Japan. We belive that a comprehensive study of the Yaeyama region can make significant contributions to the understanding of Japanese culture.Indeed, our research team found that the number of historical records, architectural structures, and other materials of histrical interest that survived the Pacific War far exceeds our expectations. Whereas the title deeds in other Okinawan islands were largely lost during the war, the ample documemts which remain in Yaeyama will enable us to clarify not only the Ryukyuan system of land ownership but also the details of forced emigration by both the Satsuma Clan and the Ryukyu Kingdom.Our team surveyed and described a range of folk architecture in settlemants such as kabira in Ishigaki Island, and settlements on the islands of Taketomi, Hatoma and Iriomote. We expect this data to be of great benefit in deepening our understanding of traditional domestic architecture in the Ryukyu and Japan.