Of all the cultural heritage of the kingdom of the Ryukyus, the Omoro-sōshi, the Devine Book of Omoro, is to be placed at its pinnacle. Torigoe Kenzaburo began the study of the religion indigenous to Okinawa in 1940 at the age of 26. His prewar experience of field work in Okinawa culminated in 1944 in the form of his first book, which was entitled the Ryukyu Kodai-shakai no Kenkyu, "The Study of the Ancient Society of the Ryukyus". Torigoe devoted himself, during the next three decades, to the study of the Omoro-sōshi, and the result of his effort was marked by the publication, in 1968, of the Omoro-sōshi Zenshaku, the "Complete Translation of Omoro-sōshi", the staggering five volume edition, each volume consisting of nearly 600 pages. Today, at the age of 93, after publishing more than 50 books, Torigoe still enjoys spending part of a day in reading and writing.
Torigoe’s work on Omoro-sōshi, what we call Torigoe Omoro, is not without flaws as partly indicated by Christopher Drake, for example, which we quoted toward the end of our paper, it represents the first effort in the history of the study of the Omoro-sōshi in bringing the whole 22 books of Omoro in the form of annotated translation based on what is known as Shoke-bon, the manuscript copy made and preserved by the Shō royal family. Our paper reflects only the brief introductory portion of a work on Torigoe Omoro, which is currently being undertaken.
