Like tree rings, the islands of Okinawa contain cultures within cultures; ever more singular layers of age and time.

According to some sources, the early culture of Miyakojima, an island 330 km south of Okinawa Island, had affinities with the aboriginal cultures of Taiwan. Physiological differences set apart the Okinawans of these parts from mainland Japanese — as is evident in their generally rounder features, bigger eyes and darker complexions. All this, to a large extent, is a legacy of the many traders and ships' crews from Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere who once docked here.

However, those physical distinctions have been a mixed blessing. It was not so long ago that residents in these remoter islands suffered the stigma of racial and social ranking. In a system of graduated discrimination, the Japanese looked down upon the Okinawans as a primitive people, while mainland Okinawans expressed a similar contempt for the people of Sakishima Shoto (the Outer Islands).