Yuta (shaman) and community mental health on Okinawa

This study reports on the relations between the yuta (shaman) and the community mental health activities on Okinawa, Japan. Focus is on the process of initiation of the yuta and its meanings from the mental health viewpoints, the functions of the yuta in the particular cultural background of the island, and the importance of admitting the existence of the yuta in its relations to the psychiatric treatment in a mental hospital. The discussion is based on the authors' research findings which were obtained mostly through their therapeutic activities and their field studies. The authors' assumption is that each culture has in it a certain social background that is unique in that culture by which a stress or insanity is increased or brought about, but in the same culture there are ways to decrease the stress and to cure the insanity.