‘The oldest woman in the family stays to maintain the family home and to look after the ancestors’ spirits. We would never leave them. In the worst case scenario the tomb would be moved to where the family’s descendants now live.’
The idea of a community of tomb-guardians may sound somewhat ominous, but, says Kinjo: ‘We lead very active social lives. We’re always meeting up at someone’s house. We’ll all cook an okazu [literally, a side dish], so we keep each other company and we also have lots of different dishes to eat.’
Near the restaurant, 88-year-old Kiyo Miyagi is working in her vegetable garden. Like Kinjo, she’s a vegetable fan. ‘People should only eat what they can grow. It’s not natural to eat lots of fried food because you can’t make all that oil yourself to fry food. I don’t eat it myself, nor meat, nor much fish. Vegetables keep us alive. During the war I spent three months hiding in a cave living on kujiki leaves.’
She is also kept busy attending to the needs of gods and ancestors. ‘I pray twice a day. First thing in the morning I pray to the kitchen god, then my ancestor gods. I talk to them, I serve them tea, I give them food. I do this every day.’
The subject of the island’s gods emerges again on the drive back from Ogimi. Former advertising executive Asahiro Oyama is a grandfatherly looking 62-year-old who is less a taxi driver and more an encyclopaedic source of knowledge on all things Okinawan.
As we head down the road Oyama points to a huddle of the local turtle-back tombs, large stone structures that resemble the shape of a shell. ‘When our ancestors die we believe their spirits stay with us as gods. Tombs like those are big houses for the spirits.’
And Oyama is far from unhappy about the weather, it transpires. ‘Okinawa needs typhoons. It’s how we get our water. It hadn’t rained for ages and then, just when we were expecting restrictions to be enforced, along came this typhoon.’
His smile is so broad at this point that his eyes have disappeared – a rather alarming state of affairs for a taxi driver. ‘It’s great. We’d been praying to the sea gods to bring rain and they’ve done just that. It’s been fantastic, lasted days and days – and the amount of rain it’s giving us… It’s a truly special typhoon.’
Far from being angry, it appears the sea gods have merely answered the prayers of the faithful.
How To Get There
ANA flies daily from London Heathrow to Naha via Tokyo from £655 ($1,066) inclusive of tax and charges.
www.ana.co.uk
Find Out More
Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) is the ultimate resource for travel-related information on Japan.
www.jnto.go.jp
Okinawa Nahana Hotel
www.ishinhotels.com
Intercontinental Manza Beach Resort
Tel: (+81) 989 661 211
www.ichotelsgroup.com
Sunset Beach House
A charming homestay-style place with just four bedrooms.
Room prices start from ¥7,500 ($85) per person with breakfast or ¥12,000 ($135) per person with breakfast and dinner.
www.sunset-bh.com
I watched a documentary movie about this. It is really amazing to know that many of them reach the age of 90s and they are still physically fit.