Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and Do not destroy. On Taketomi, when islanders plans to build and restore their
house, they have to submit their plans to the Committee of Cultural Building
Preservation. This consists of 12 islanders, who review the submitted plans, a
procedure based on the idea that “houses are owned by persons, but the island is
owned by all the islanders” (Tokyo Sorbonne Juku 1996 ).
Designations or evaluations that are adopted from national practices are always
a source of argument among islanders, as local ways of being are suddenly
evaluated by outsiders, and their terms. There are various examples of negative
attitudes: a lack of concern or a perception that national designations are a nuisance,
a restriction on development, a burden, and a cause of unnecessary expenditure.
But, after long discussions, Taketomi people have accepted the limits accompanying
preservation quite positively as a demonstration of island pride. People believe that
their positive attitude in the past has determined their successful adaptation to a
tourism-based economy in the present.
The Kominkan in Okinawa play quite important roles in the islands' self-governance
(Kobayashi 2000 ). Heads of Kominkan are selected by local vote and have respon-
sibility for most community affairs. In Taketomi, for example, in an attempt to
reduce conflict between island residents who engage in tourism business and those
who do not, the Kominkan decided in 1986 that tourist agents have to pay a
“tourism tax” or “cooperative money” to the island community. The Taketomi
Kominkan evaluates each tourist agent and taxes it according to its business
earnings. In total the tourism tax amounts up to about 650,000 yen (about US
$7,200) annually, and accounts for a fourth of the total annual budget of Taketomi
Kominkan . The tourism tax reduces the burden of people in non-tourism business
for maintaining the Taketomi community.
Yaeyama Minsaa Textile and Traditional Household Goods
In 1989, the Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry designated the
Yaeyama Minsaa textile, the traditional textile art of Okinawa, as a Traditional
Handwork. Archival records confirm that cotton clothes brought to Okinawa from
China were in use at the beginning of the sixteenth century at the Ryukyu Dynasty
court. The name minsaa is derived from min (which means cotton) and saa (which
means a narrow band). Both warp and weft threads of the minsaa are cotton and the
ikat threads are tied by hand. The dye is usually indigo, producing a sea-blue-like
background on which the white pattern is picked out in beautiful contrast. The main
garments produced are obi sashes for men and women and ties. With three state-
recognized Master Crafts persons leading the work, there are now 241 people and
162 firms involved in minsaa production in Yaeyama District.
In the past, a woman would give a minsaa with the four ( yotsu ) and five ( itsutsu )
patterns woven into the cloth to the man she loved (Fig. 11.3 ). A pun on similarity
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