7-11 July 2026) Speech at ISISA - Korea on Yonaguni Oral History
2026/07/08
2026ISISA-Venue
Wakaranko beside a lake in Hokkaido
Takako and Yuji ANKEI will attend the 2026 ISISA, the International Small Islands Studies Association,
Title: 20th Islands of the World Conference (2026 ISISA)
제20회 2026 세계섬학술대회
Date: 7(Tue)-11(Sat) July 2026
Conference theme: Island Space and Time
Conference location & venue:
Ramada Plaza & C-ONE Resort Jaeundo, Shinan County, South Korea
We will present in a special session entitled:
The Island-scape Narratives: Empathy, Expression, and Ethical Responsibility in Participatory Research and Co-Learning, directed by Soyo Takahashi.
Some of the following titles are tentative.
Emi Asato
Transformative Learning through the Arts: Music, Community, and Creative Pedagogy
Takako Ankei and Yuji Ankei
Co-Creating Historical Narratives on Yonaguni Island: Silence, Ethics, and Art in the Interchange with Taiwan and Jeju peoples
Frédéric Joulian
Collaborative Ethnographic research: Manga-Making practice from Mayotte Island
Hanan La Ode Muhamad Saleh
Island Cosmology and Historical Memory: Star Lore in Wangi-Wangi Traditional Knowledge
Makoto Goto
Participatory Photography survey as Digital History in Island Communities
Our presentation outline
Co-Creating Historical Narratives on Yonaguni Island: Silence, ethics, and art in the interchange with Taiwan and Jeju peoples
Takako ANKEI and Yuji ANKEI
Abstract
This presentation is based on our 36-year partnership with Ms. Wakaranko (1954-2025). She was a self-taught artist born on Yonaguni, the southwestern-most island of Japan. She was raised from the age of two as the Mutukkahamai, a shaman who specializes in weather and food. After we first met in 1989, she decided to send us her memories of the island's oral history, a continued remote co-creation without meeting in person. Her stories included cultural exchanges between 15th-century drifters from Jeju Island and Taiwanese aborigines, who were the earliest immigrants to the still uninhabited Yonaguni. She was opposed by people who adhered to the “orthodox island history." They even burned her notebooks and physically attacked her. We have worked to find an ethical way to respectfully break her prolonged silence and share her personal memory with the rest of the community. We suggested using pictures to illustrate her oral history. It helped her to create two picture books for local children to enjoy. We aim to make her dream come true of sharing the island's oral history with the world. Her memory includes people from different cultures living together in harmony under the leadership of female chieftains. They worked together to make sure nobody went hungry.
和訳
アイランドスケープの語り：参加型研究と共同学習における共感、表現、そして倫理的責任
与那国島における歴史語りの共創：台湾・済州島の人々との交流における沈黙・研究倫理・アート
安渓貴子・安渓遊地
要旨
本発表は、私たちが36年間にわたり築いてきた和歌嵐香氏（1954-2025）との協力関係に基づくものである。彼女は日本の最南西端の島・与那国島生まれの独学の芸術家であった。2歳の時から天候と食べ物を司るシャーマン「むとぅ‘かはまい」として育てられた。1989年に初めて出会った後、彼女は島の伝承に関する記憶を私たちに送ることを決め、直接会うことなく遠隔での共同創作が続けられた。彼女の物語には、15世紀に漂流した済州島民とそれ以前からの台湾原住民族との文化交流が含まれていた。彼らは当時まだ無人島だった与那国島への最初の移住者だったという。彼女は「正統派の島の歴史」を信奉する人々から敵視され、ノートを焼かれ、暴行さえ受けた。私たちは、彼女の長き沈黙を丁重に解き、その個人的記憶を地域社会と共有する道を模索してきた。私たちは彼女の口承史を絵で表現することを提案した。これにより彼女は地元の子どもたちが楽しめる絵本を2冊制作するに至った。私たちは島の口承史を世界と共有するという彼女の夢を実現させることを目指している。彼女の記憶には、女性首長の指導のもと異なる文化を持つ人々が調和して共生し、誰も飢えることがないよう協力し合った姿が刻まれている。
