The Okinawan Yuta and Spirit-Medium Traditions in the Early Shōwa Period

Record summary

Yuta are Okinawan ritual specialists associated with communication with spirits, diagnosis of affliction, divination, and family or ancestral rites. Japanese colonial and folkloristic writing from the early twentieth century recorded these practices while often classifying them as superstition, shamanism, or social pathology. The tradition offers a strong comparative lead for distinguishing spirit-mediumship from possession and for examining how medical, police, and religious categories interacted. The broad tradition is identifiable, but individual pre-1946 case reports vary greatly in reliability, terminology, transcription, and the extent to which informants’ own concepts were preserved.