Okinawans live longest

[Miulang]

Foget da white rice rice and start grinding moa purple sweet potato! Den maybe you get one betta chance foa live to be 100 without going pupule, according to dis study:

http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=4999

Miulang

[craigwatanabe]

Yeah but whateva dey stay kau kau make dem some hairy buggahs! :D

[Miulang]

And how come if Okinawans are supposed to be Japanese, that they look kinda hapa haole, anyway? The Okinawans I know all have really nice complexions and looooong eyelashes. I like their andagi, too.

Miulang

[malia]

And how come if Okinawans are supposed to be Japanese, that they look kinda hapa haole, anyway? The Okinawans I know all have really nice complexions and looooong eyelashes. I like their andagi, too.

Miulang

From what I was told when I was younger, by my grandma who is full Okinawan (and always made sure she told people this, when they mistakenly called her "Japanese"...Okinawans sure are proud to be Okinawan, and not Japanese), the Portuguese seafarers used Okinawa as a stopover on their voyages across the Pacific, so there was a lot of "intermingling" with the natives and that's why a lot of Okinawans have reddish, almost frizzy hair, and darker complexions than their dark-haired, pale-skinned Japanese ancestors. That's also how they got andagi...modeled after the Portuguese malassada. At least that's what I was told... :)

[[mugen]]

From what I was told when I was younger, by my grandma who is full Okinawan (and always made sure she told people this, when they mistakenly called her "Japanese"...Okinawans sure are proud to be Okinawan, and not Japanese), the Portuguese seafarers used Okinawa as a stopover on their voyages across the Pacific, so there was a lot of "intermingling" with the natives and that's why a lot of Okinawans have reddish, almost frizzy hair, and darker complexions than their dark-haired, pale-skinned Japanese ancestors. That's also how they got andagi...modeled after the Portuguese malassada. At least that's what I was told... :)

The reason why Okinawans are Okinawans and not Japanese is due to Okinawa being a separate nation from Japan. Okinawa was taken over by the Satsuma domain of Japan in 1609, but was allowed to keep a certain level of independance from the Tokugawa Shogunate. However, the Okinawan people still had to pay taxes (in the form of rice harvests) to the Japanese central government.

The Portuguese (or any other European) were not allowed to set foot in any of the Okinawan Islands. The Satsuma would not allow it. There were Satsuma officials on every island supervising rice harvests and textile production. If a European ship did dock at an island: Police action from the Satsuma would have been taken and the Europeans would have been expelled from the islands or would have been executed.

Furthermore, Okinawans are north Asian (sinitic). Okinawans do not have red hair or frizzy (tightly curled) hair! And Okinawans do not look hapa. My parents came from Okinawa. I don't know of any Okinawans from Okinawa who would describe the racial characteristics of the Okinawan population like this.

[Glen Miyashiro]

']The reason why Okinawans are Okinawans and not Japanese is due to Okinawa being a separate nation from Japan. Okinawa was taken over by the Satsuma domain of Japan in 1609, but was allowed to keep a certain level of independance from the Tokugawa Shogunate. However, the Okinawan people still had to pay taxes (in the form of rice harvests) to the Japanese central government.Yup. In other words, Okinawa is to Japan what Hawai'i is to the USA: a conquered territory, with little to no chance of ever becoming independent again. Except Okinawa has been ruled by Japan a lot longer than Hawai'i has been ruled by America.

Furthermore, Okinawans are north Asian (sinitic). Okinawans do not have red hair or frizzy (tightly curled) hair! And Okinawans do not look hapa. My parents came from Okinawa. I don't know of any Okinawans from Okinawa who would describe the racial characteristics of the Okinawan population like this.I agree about the hair, but if you look at Okinawan culture, and customs and clothing, they seem to be closer to the Taiwanese. There isn't a lot of north Asian influence that I can see. Linguistically, though, Okinawan is related to Japanese but is certainly not the same language. I remember learning Okinawan phrases at home that my Japanese language sensei at school would scratch her head at.

Now if you want to talk about European blood in the Japanese population, let's talk about Nagasaki prefecture. That's where the shogunate allowed a foreign presence, and I wouldn't be surprised if some Dutch or Portuguese traders sowed some wild oats there.

[pinakboy]

my brada-in-law is okinawan and wen he ack up i tellem, "u know why okinawans hairy?" he'd reply, "why?" i tellem, "dey hairy coz da portagee jesuit priests wen oof all da okinawan peepz and das why u look like Frank Delima!!!" den pau he like throw blows!! LOL!! always works fo me!! :D

[Glen Miyashiro]

Ho, betta watch out manong! Us Okinawans, we all know karate. :D

[kimo55]

and a few other Japanese words, too, I hear!

[Glen Miyashiro]

Das' right.

[kimo55]

sogyantai.....

[pinakboy]

Ho, betta watch out manong! Us Okinawans, we all know karate. :D

ok karate is good. but i can defeat u with mah okinawan pigfeet soup like da kine get at the HUOA festival every year and mah andagi dough ball squeezing technique!! hehehe :)

my brada in law lose mahney he dunno karate... :(

[Glen Miyashiro]

Ai, you found da weak spot -- we cannot resist one good bowl of pigs feet soup!

[Miulang]

Ai, you found da weak spot -- we cannot resist one good bowl of pigs feet soup!
Eh Glen, you neva did give Lurkah examples of "interesting" Okinawan food dishes! Besides da pig feet soup, what else get? Dat not so "oogy". I would try some.

Miulang

[lurkah]

Eh Glen, you neva did give Lurkah examples of "interesting" Okinawan food dishes! Besides da pig feet soup, what else get? Dat not so "oogy". I would try some.
Watchu talking oogy? Pig's feet soup brok' da mout anden. Especially when da weddah come cold, notting like one steaming hot bowl of pig's feet soup wit rice and onions and potatoes fo hit da spot.

Da oni humbug paht I gotta deal wit is da stink eye I get from da rest of da household when I stay cooking da pig's feet, dey always gotta axe me, "Do you know where those feet have been?" :rolleyes:

[Miulang]

Watchu talking oogy? Pig's feet soup brok' da mout anden. Especially when da weddah come cold, notting like one steaming hot bowl of pig's feet soup wit rice and onions and potatoes fo hit da spot.

Da oni humbug paht I gotta deal wit is da stink eye I get from da rest of da household when I stay cooking da pig's feet, dey always gotta axe me, "Do you know where those feet have been?" :rolleyes:
I know what you mean! When I cook tripe or tongue, Panzo goes "yuck!"

Miulang

[Glen Miyashiro]

Miulang, wasn't me. Was scrivener (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=5993). Go ask him! :p

[alohabear]

Da Ainus are da hairy ones from Japan :D

[Miulang]

Da Ainus are da hairy ones from Japan :D
Dey da haole looking ones, too!

Miulang

[lurkah]

Da Ainus are da hairy ones from Japan :D
Had fo do one quick double-take on dat word --> Ainus :eek: being dat da oddah word is hairy too yeah? :p

[Miulang]

Had fo do one quick double-take on dat word --> Ainus :eek: being dat da oddah word is hairy too yeah? :p
Eh, your airconditioner working again or wat? You sound like you get heat stroke! (you seeing 2 of you in da mirror?) :p

Miulang

[lurkah]

(you seeing 2 of you in da mirror?) :p
2 of me couldn't fit in 1 mirror. http://ohanalanai.com/lanai/images/smilies/sticktongue.gif

[Keith H.]

And how come if Okinawans are supposed to be Japanese, that they look kinda hapa haole, anyway? The Okinawans I know all have really nice complexions and looooong eyelashes. I like their andagi, too.

Miulang

Hmmm...OK, I can blame how I came out on my naichi side.

[craigwatanabe]

Holy crap Okinawans supposed to be Japanese? That's as bad as saying Japanese should be Chinese. There's a difference...Okinawans wear out razor blades twice as fast as Japanese :D

If you go up to an Okinawan and tell them he's Japanese, better run away real fast.

Imagine this scenerio: Hey Hackfield you look just like a McCoy! Yeah them's feudin' words!

[Eric]

Holy crap Okinawans supposed to be Japanese? That's as bad as saying Japanese should be Chinese.Or like saying Samoans are the same as Tongans. Go ahead, try it. Nice knowing you. :D :D

[craigwatanabe]

Or tell a Hawaiian they're American.

[Miulang]

OK, since no one wants to tell Lurkah and me what other kinds of food people from Okinawa-ken eat, I did some research and was amazed that some of the things I thought were Japanese Japanese, really originated in Okinawa.

Yes, there's the pig's feet soup and andagi (I found out anything that starts with "anda" means that it's fried, and there are all kinds of anda besides the kind that look like malasadas), sekihan (rice with beans), rafute and some kinds of soba. I also found out that Okinawans use more pork than other Japanese, and they use ALL of a pig, not just select cuts (I wonder if that's where tripe and loco came from, or was that from the Chinese?) and they don't use as much sugar as the rest of Japan.

You learn something new everyday... :cool:

Miulang

[lurkah]

OK, since no one wants to tell Lurkah and me what other kinds of food people from Okinawa-ken eat, I did some research and was amazed that some of the things I thought were Japanese Japanese, really originated in Okinawa.

Yes, there's the pig's feet soup and andagi (I found out anything that starts with "anda" means that it's fried, and there are all kinds of anda besides the kind that look like malasadas), sekihan (rice with beans), rafute and some kinds of soba. I also found out that Okinawans use more pork than other Japanese, and they use ALL of a pig, not just select cuts (I wonder if that's where tripe and loco came from, or was that from the Chinese?) and they don't use as much sugar as the rest of Japan.

You learn something new everyday... :cool:
http://allthingshawaiian.com/lurkah/smileys/smileyyawning.gif Blahdee blahdee blah. So harryup serve da food awredeh.

[[mugen]]

Yup. In other words, Okinawa is to Japan what Hawai'i is to the USA: a conquered territory, with little to no chance of ever becoming independent again. Except Okinawa has been ruled by Japan a lot longer than Hawai'i has been ruled by America.

Actually from the years 1609 to 1879, Okinawa was actually independent from the Satsuma Daimyo and the Tokugawa Shogunate. Since the Chinese welcomed trade from the Okinawans, and since the Tokugawa and the Satsuma were banned from trading with China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Tokugawa allowed Okinawa to be independent because the Tokugawa wanted access to Chinese goods (i.e. porcelains, silk, herbs and etc), which were highly valued in the areas controlled directly by the Tokugawa Shogun.

1879 was the actual year Okinawa was taken over by Japan’s Meiji government, because there was this fear in the Meiji government that the Europeans would use Okinawa as a base for the eventual invasion and colonization of Japan. Thus, Okinawa became a prefecture, but Okinawa was actually a quasi-colony, which Okinawa still is, due to the large number of U.S. bases dumped in Okinawa by the government of Japan.

if you look at Okinawan culture, and customs and clothing, they seem to be closer to the Taiwanese.

I don't know what you're talking about. The Ryukyu Islanders have been in the Ryukyu Islands centuries before the start of China’s Tang dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, Taiwan had no (Han) Chinese inhabitants. The only people to inhabit Taiwan during the Tang Dynasty were the pingpu and gaoshan aboriginal tribal groups.

The Ryukyu Islanders were also ahead several centuries from the aboriginal Taiwanese in terms technology and agriculture. The Pingpu and the gaoshan were locked in a stone-age/slash-and-burn agricultural society, which left them vulnerable to genocide from the ethnic Fujinanese who slowly migrated into Taiwan with more advanced (steel) weapons.

If there’s any similarity between present-day Taiwan and Okinawa’s culture it’s because migrants from China’s Fujian province settled in both Taiwan and Ryukyu sporadically. Furthermore the Fujianese who became the present day “Taiwanese” are still north Asian (of the sinitic race).


There isn't a lot of north Asian influence that I can see.

I don’t know what your definition of north Asian is, but Okinawan culture, custom and belief was virtually shaped by Confucianism and Taoism (and both of these philosophies were born in China [north Asia]).

Linguistically, though, Okinawan is related to Japanese but is certainly not the same language. I remember learning Okinawan phrases at home that my Japanese language sensei at school would scratch her head at.

Prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, there was no Japan, Japanese or Japanese language. The people who lived on the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu all had different histories and spoke completely different (but related) languages. On the island of Kyushu alone existed two ethnic groups, the Satsuma of present day Kagoshima prefecture and the Kumaso of Kumamoto prefecture. Both of these peoples (tribes) were theoretically ethnically distinct from the people in Honshu. For example, prior to 1868, the language of the Shogun and the language of the Yi dynasty of Korea were both equally alien and foreign to the Satsuma.

The Meiji government (which abolished the Tokugawa Shogunate) created the term “Japan” to refer to all the islands that were formerly under the control of the Yamato court, which at the time was headed continuously by the emperor Meiji’s male ancestors. And these islands that were formerly under the control of the emperor’s family were Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. However, by the time the emperor's army had reached southern Kyushu and the northern tip of Honshu, the Yamato court had already been abolished and the emperor’s family had been replaced by the Kamakura shogunate. That is why the Ryukyus and Hokkaido are not Yamato (Japanese), due to the emperor’s military and the Yamato court not having the power or the influence to even reach these islands in the first place. Another thing to consider is that the Meiji government’s naming of the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu as Yamato also solidified the boundaries of Imperial Japan, which Okinawa was never really a part of.

To my knowledge “Japanese” as a language is a modern construct -- because the Satsuma, during the reign of the Tokugawa, needed an interpreter to communicate with the Shogun and his people.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Wow mugen, sounds like you know a lot!

']Actually from the years 1609 to 1879, Okinawa was actually independent from the Satsuma Daimyo and the Tokugawa Shogunate. Since the Chinese welcomed trade from the Okinawans, and since the Tokugawa and the Satsuma were banned from trading with China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Tokugawa allowed Okinawa to be independent because the Tokugawa wanted access to Chinese goods (i.e. porcelains, silk, herbs and etc), which were highly valued in the areas controlled directly by the Tokugawa Shogun."Allowed" Okinawa to be independent? How generous of them. :rolleyes:

I don't know what you're talking about. The Ryukyu Islanders have been in the Ryukyu Islands centuries before the start of China’s Tang dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, Taiwan had no (Han) Chinese inhabitants. The only people to inhabit Taiwan during the Tang Dynasty were the pingpu and gaoshan aboriginal tribal groups. The Ryukyu Islanders were also ahead several centuries from the aboriginal Taiwanese in terms technology and agriculture. The Pingpu and the gaoshan were locked in a stone-age/slash-and-burn agricultural society, which left them vulnerable to genocide from the ethnic Fujinanese who slowly migrated into Taiwan with more advanced (steel) weapons.I don't know much about all that. My thoughts were based on the colorful clothing of Okinawans, as compared to that of the Yamatonchu. Maybe part of it is also that Okinawa has a similar tropical climate to Taiwan, so the people dress similarly.

I don’t know what your definition of north Asian is, but Okinawan culture, custom and belief was virtually shaped by Confucianism and Taoism (and both of these philosophies were born in China [north Asia]).OK, OK, uncle already! You win, o scholar! :D

Prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, there was no Japan, Japanese or Japanese language. The people who lived on the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu all had different histories and spoke completely different (but related) languages.Very interesting! I hadn't realized that the unification of Japan was that recent -- I thought for sure it had been consolidated centuries earlier.

Thanks for all your insight!