Amamikyu

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.

Domains

• creation of the world
• agriculture and rice
• sacred groves utaki

Powers

• to raise the islands and land of Ryukyu out of the sea
• to bring forth the first inhabitants of the islands

Epithets

• アマミキヨWilliam P. Lebra, Okinawan Religion: Belief, Ritual, and Social Structure (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1966). (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: ShinerikyoAmamikyu and her male counterpart Shinerikyo together create the islands and conceive the first three children; some recensions instead cast the pair as primordial siblings.Mitsugu Sakihara, A Brief History of Early Okinawa Based on the Omoro Sōshi (Tokyo: Honpo Shoseki Press, 1987). (secondary)
• subordinate to: Tedako, the Child of the SunIn the Omoro Sōshi the sun-lord Tedako commands Amamikyu and Shinerikyo to make the islands and humankind.Mitsugu Sakihara, A Brief History of Early Okinawa Based on the Omoro Sōshi (Tokyo: Honpo Shoseki Press, 1987). (secondary)

Sources

• Amamikyu is the principal creator goddess of Ryukyuan religion, who descended from heaven to make the Ryukyu Islands, their sacred groves, and their first people.: Mitsugu Sakihara, A Brief History of Early Okinawa Based on the Omoro Sōshi (Tokyo: Honpo Shoseki Press, 1987). (secondary); George H. Kerr, Okinawa: The History of an Island People, rev. ed. (Tokyo: Tuttle, 2000), ch. 1. (secondary)