Shioya;Okinawa;Japan

Three dancers performing a story dance at the school grounds in Shioya, Okinawa, celebrating the Festival for the Sea God (Umigami). Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "One of the story dances with woman crouching in foreground and two others in conversation behind her."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "The beginning of thatching of a roof in Shioya on one of the larger, better-built houses. All joints between main timbers are mortise and tenon, rafter poles are nailed to this frame, and bamboo canes tied to the rafters. Grass has now been spread along the lower edge of the roof on one side and the men are packing and tying it down."

Performers dancing in a circle, hands uplifted, at the school grounds in Shioya, Okinawa, celebrating the Festival for the Sea God (Umigami). Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "The girls dancing in a ring around the revelers who are milling about the flag moved into the dance arena. There was much shouting and flailing of the air with bamboo switches."

Performers walking to the school grounds in Shioya, Okinawa, for the Festival for the Sea God (Umigami). Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "The shanen gaka, unmarried girls between ages 16 and 22, in costume as they march toward the school grounds."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "An Okinawan woman with a bundle of rice on her head beside the canoe on the beach at Shioya, after having brought it down the bay several miles.The grain will be stripped from the straw at the hut in the village."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "A young girl, cousin of Mitchiko who worked for us, in costume and movement of the dance, in the village of Tamenato, on the shore of Shana Wan. Duplicate from Del Flint."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "The quonset hut in which we lived in Shioya, Okinawa as seen from the sea wall before it. The trailer with drinking water, the shelter for the generator, and a 3/4-ton truck (weapons carrier) are in the foreground. Native houses and a small-hill with a simple shrine are in the background."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "Sunset from the seawall at Shioya with mountains of Motobu peninsula silhouetted against the sky."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "Part of the village of Shirahama, the village of Shioya (across the bay to the right), and Miyagi Shima (little island in mouth of Shana Wan, also called Shioya Minato) from the road above the former village. Terraced mountainsides used mainly for sweet potatoes lie beyond Shioya. Iheya Shima is a faint blue along the horizon."

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "The street running east and west along the quonset hut in which we lived in Shioya with nearby flag raised for Umigami, Festival for the Sea God. The tile roof at the end of the street marks the "jimusho," city hall. The fences came from quonset frames."