What is called Okinawa today has historically been called the Ryukyu (or Loo-Choo) Kingdom. Situated between China and Japan, the people of the Ryukyu islands have mediated between the two larger countries, and their culture represents a fusion of both with its own unique religion and language. Historically Ryukyu literature was an oral tradition containing several genres, including epic poetry, ballads, ritual prayers, and short lyric poetry called ryuka that is similar to tanka. The Japanese government formally annexed the Ryukyus following the Meiji Restoration and, as Japanese language education became the norm, Ryukyuan writers, such as Oshiro Tatsuhiro (1925–) and Higashi Mineo (1938–), began publishing stories in Japanese.
See also AINU LITERATURE; COLONIAL LITERATURE.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.