INDEPENDENT GUIDENOT AFFILIATED
YAEYAMA / ISLAND WORDS
Ooritoori (おーりとーり) is the word that welcomes travelers to Yaeyama — Ishigaki City's official site explains it as meaning “welcome”. And the words of these islands are also among the languages UNESCO counted as in danger of disappearing. The words that welcome, and the words being protected — this page introduces both, within the bounds of public sources.
OORITOORI
A greeting is the first thing an island hands a traveler. Listed here are only the words confirmed through public sources — Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture and the Taketomi Town Tourism Association — and each word is spelled as its source spells it.
Ishigaki City's official site explains ooritoori (おーりとーり) as the Ishigaki Island word for “welcome”. Okinawa Prefecture's official site carries a page titled “Ooritoori, to Yaeyama!”, and the Taketomi Town Tourism Association's site uses “ooritoori irimuti” — welcome to Iriomote Island. Not Ishigaki's greeting alone: it is Yaeyama's word of welcome.
Ishigaki City official site ↗The Taketomi Town Tourism Association's official pamphlet states plainly that painu-shima (ぱいぬ島) means “the southern island” in the Yaeyama language. The air gateway's official name, too, is written 南ぬ島石垣空港 — the southern island lives in the islands' own way of naming themselves.
Taketomi Town Tourism Association pamphlet ↗For miifaiyuu (みーふぁいゆー) there is an official example of use at a scene of gratitude and send-off: at a Tanabata event at the airport, boarding passengers were seen off with message boards carrying the word — a record kept in the newsletter of the Ishigaki City Tourism Exchange Association. And the Taketomi Town Tourism Association's pamphlet introduces matane (またね, “see you again”) as a word that leads to the next time. Even the words of parting point forward.
The association's newsletter ↗ENDANGERED LANGUAGE
Behind the words of welcome stands a larger fact. In February 2009, UNESCO published the third edition of its Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, and eight languages of Japan were listed — the Yaeyama and Yonaguni languages among them, as two of the eight. From here on, only the public record.
By the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the eight listed languages are Ainu, Hachijō, Amami, Kunigami, Okinawan, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni. Yaeyama and Yonaguni are counted not as one language folded together, but as two separate languages.
Agency for Cultural Affairs ↗By the public record of a memorandum of questions in the House of Councillors (171st Diet session), the Yaeyama and Yonaguni languages were placed at the level the Japanese record words as 「重大な危険」 — grave danger: the stage next to the deepest one given to Ainu, and one stage deeper than the one given to Okinawan, Kunigami, Miyako, Amami and Hachijō. Okinawa Prefecture's official page likewise counts Kunigami, Okinawan, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni as five languages, each in danger of disappearing.
House of Councillors record ↗The Agency for Cultural Affairs continues survey, preservation and transmission work on these eight languages, together with the dialects of the areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Whether to call them “dialects” or “languages” is a question with range — but under either name, they are words being protected.
The Agency's program ↗SHIMAKUTUBA
In 2006 (Heisei 18), Okinawa Prefecture established by a members' bill an ordinance naming September 18 the day of shimakutuba (しまくとぅば) — the islands' words. A prefectural undertaking to hand the words to the next generation.
By the prefectural library's materials, the ordinance was enacted in March 2006, as Okinawa Prefectural Ordinance No. 35 — a commemorative day for treasuring shimakutuba, the words of the islands, and carrying them on to the next generation.
Okinawa Prefecture, shimakutuba promotion plan ↗In the prefecture's shimakutuba awareness survey (fiscal 2022), those who use shimakutuba at least at the level of greetings were about four in ten, on a declining trend. The day and the promotion plan are the prefecture's answer to that current.
Survey outline ↗This is not a quotation but this page's editorial view — this site, published in nine languages, means to be a small bridge of its own, carrying the islands' words toward the words of the world. May ooritoori reach its readers in nine languages at the same warmth.
WORDS FOR TRAVELERS
From here on, these are this page's editorial impressions. This page is no authority on spelling or pronunciation — only a traveler's way of standing before the islands' words.
If you learn one, let it be ooritoori — the Yaeyama word of welcome with the firmest public footing. Just knowing the word you were welcomed with changes the way you step onto the pier. For the life of the villages, see the Taketomi page.
Know Taketomi Island →Respect the words you hear on the islands as they are, even without understanding them. A language counted as disappearing, spoken right in front of you — that in itself is a rare landscape to meet on a journey. For the feasts and the calendar, see the island calendar page.
To the island calendar →Words are not something to be forced. Replying in Japanese is enough, and simply listening is enough. What matters is not consuming a language as a prop of travel. And to choose a direction again, the compass awaits.
Find a journey on UMI YAIMA COMPASS →This page is an independent, self-produced work. The meanings and usage of ooritoori and painu-shima summarize the official pages and pamphlets of Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture and the Taketomi Town Tourism Association; the UNESCO Atlas (2009, third edition), Japan's eight languages and the classification written in Japanese as 「重大な危険」 summarize the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the public record of the House of Councillors; Shimakutuba Day and the awareness survey summarize Okinawa Prefecture and the prefectural library — confirmed by November 1, 2026 (in part at the level of search-result titles and summaries). For miifaiyuu, this page only introduces an official example of use at a scene of gratitude and send-off, and asserts no translation. The section for travelers, and the passage casting this site itself as a bridge, are this page's editorial impressions, not quotations. Words are kept in their sources' kana spellings; this page is no authority on orthography or pronunciation.