The Study of the Ritual Song in Tarama Island

Research Project

Project/Area Number	62510238
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	国文学
Research Institution	University of the Ryukyus
Principal Investigator	TAMAKI Masami University of the Ryukyus College of Law and Letters Associate Professor, 法文学部, 助教授 (30101455)
Project Period (FY)	1987 – 1989
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1989)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000) Fiscal Year 1989: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 1988: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000) Fiscal Year 1987: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Keywords	Ritual song / Singing operator / Modes of Singing / Repetition type / Allotment type / Allotment-vepetition type / Vepetition-unison type / Form of song / 復唱=斎唱法 / 分担 / 復唱 / 斉唱法 / 分担・復唱法 / 復唱・斉唱法
Research Abstract	Centering on "Sutsuupunaka Ritual" in Tarama island, I recorded the ritual process on visual aids, collected the ritual songs and analyzed them. I also collected the ritual songs which hasn't been left today. I found some knowledge that are showed below. Adding up 4 ritual places, there have been handed down 40 songs which are sung for "Sutsuupunaka Ritual". Each place has about 10 songs, which contents are almost similar. I recorded them in IP.4 (International Phonetic Alphabet) and Japanese characters (Kana), The songs are sung by mostly old man and there are 4 ways of singing: (1) repetition type (2) allotment type (3) allotment-repetition type (4) repetition-unisontype. After analyzing these materials, I came to the conclusion that the ritual songs in Tarama is the oldest type in Ryukyu islands, therefore it is very valuable.