Amamikyu

Ryukyuan · deity · Ryukyuan traditional religion; continuing · deity

Amamikyu (also Amamikiyo, Amamiku) is the foremost creator deity of the indigenous religion of the Ryukyu Islands. The Omoro Sōshi, the royal anthology of ritual songs compiled between 1531 and 1623, and the seventeenth-century chronicle Chūzan Seikan recount how she descended from the heavens, first alighting on the small island of Kudaka, and then shaped Okinawa and the surrounding islands, establishing the seven foremost sacred groves (utaki) including Sefa-utaki. Working with her male counterpart Shinerikyo she also brought forth the first human beings; a widely recorded version says the pair conceived three offspring, the eldest a son ancestral to kings and nobles, a daughter who became the first of the noro priestesses, and a younger son ancestral to the common people. Through this lineage the spiritual pre-eminence of women (onarigami) was held to descend from Amamikyu herself. She remains venerated at sites such as Sefa-utaki and at a tomb attributed to her on Hamahiga Island.

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