Yasuo Higa

was an Okinawan photographer, ethnologist and anthropologist. He served ten years as a police officer near a US military base before becoming a photographer, with much of his early work centered on life in postwar Okinawa. Higa is most known for his research on ancient rituals and shamanesses from the Ryukyu Islands, mainland Japan, and Asia, conducted over the span of nearly 40 years. Through his photographs and extensive notes, Higa has preserved critical documentation on maternal rituals that have been effectively rendered extinct in areas such as Kudaka and Miyakojima.

From the 1990s onwards, Higa was also active as an educator of folklore studies, having served as an affiliate lecturer at Meiji Gakuin University and the Research Institute of Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, and as a panelist at numerous symposiums.

Early life Higa was born to Okinawan parents on Mindanao, Philippines in 1938. After his father, who was drafted into the Japanese army, died during WWII in 1945, Higa's family returned to Okinawa the following year.

Photography career In 1968, Higa decided to leave the police force following the crash of a B-52 bomber. He instead chose to pursue a career as a professional photographer because he wanted to show the somber conditions of Okinawa. In 1972, Higa's university, the Tokyo School of Photography, later published a textbook from the photographs Higa took in Okinawa. Higa returned to his family in Okinawa after graduation and took photos in his hometown for about a year. The images were first published in Camera Mainichi and across ten issues of the Okinawa Times. Higa compiled the photographs twenty years later in his book 生まれ島・沖縄 ― アメリカ世から日本世へ (≈ My Native Okinawa: From American Rule to Japanese Rule) (1992). In the book, Higa quotes Shōmei Tōmatsu's 1969 book titled 沖縄に基地があるのではなく基地の中に沖縄がある, roughly translating to "there are no bases in Okinawa, but rather Okinawa is in a base" to suggest the overwhelming US influence in Okinawa.

In the winter of 1974, Higa accompanied folklorist Kenichi Tanigawa to Karimata, Miyakojima in order to document the local festival, Uyagan Matsuri, which involved elderly shamanesses. The experience was so monumental to Higa that he dedicated the rest of his career to photograph sacred ancient rituals and shamanesses of the Ryukyu Islands. In the following months, Higa visited Kudaka over a hundred times to photograph the ancient ritual Izaihō. Some of these photographs were used in his final solo exhibition 母たちの神－琉球弧の祭祀世界95年・宮古島 (≈ Maternal Deities: The World of Rituals in the Ryukyu Arc 1995, Miyakojima). 1980: 神々の島 久高 (≈ The Island of Gods, Kudaka) 1993: 情民 (≈ Jomin). Salon de Mitsu, Naha 2008: Okinawa Prismed 1872–2008. National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 2010: Maternal Deities: Yasuo Higa Exhibition. Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum, Naha; Izu Photo Museum, Shizuoka (2011) 2020: TOP Collection: Photography in the Ryukyu Islands. Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo 2021: ときがみつめる八重山の祭祀写真・比嘉康雄・上井幸子写真展 (≈ Tokigamitsumeru Yaeyama Rituals・Yasuo Higa・Yōko Morosawa). Yonaguni Kouryukan, Yonaguni

Selected publications

生まれ島沖縄 (≈ My Native Island: Okinawa). Tokyo: Tokyo Photography College Publishing, 1971. 神々の島 沖縄久高島のまつり(≈ Islands of the Gods: Festivals of Kudaka Island, Okinawa). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1979. 琉球狐 女たちの祭 (≈ Ryukyu Arc: Women’s Festivals). Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Company, 1980. Higa Yaso, Wakugami Motō. 日本の聖域 沖縄の聖なる島々. Tokyo: Kosei Publishing, 1982. 神々の古層 (≈ Ancient Strata of the Gods). Okinawa: Nirai-sha 1989–93. 12 Volumes. 生まれ島・沖縄 ― アメリカ世から日本世へ (≈ My Native Okinawa: From American Rule to Japanese Rule). Okinawa: Nirai-sha, 1992. 日本人の魂の原郷 沖縄久高島 (≈ Ancestral Homeland of the Japanese People: Kudakajima Island, Okinawa). Shueisha Shinsho, 2001. 光と風と神々の世界 (≈ The World of Light, the Wind and the Guardian Deities). Okinawa: Higa Yasuo Retrospective Committee, 2001. 情民 (沖縄写真家シリーズ琉球烈像 第2巻) (≈ Jomin (Okinawan Photographer Series Ryukyu Retsuzō Volume 2)). Tokyo: Miraisha, 2010 母たちの神─比嘉康雄写真集 (≈ Maternal Deities: Yasuo Higa). Shuppansha Mugen, 2010.