Acting Like Female Spirit Mediums

In 1913, Nakachi Kamado called for a public trial in Naha, Okinawa, to contest the accusation that she had acted as a yuta, or female spirit medium. The trial captivated city residents, drawing hundreds to the courtroom and even more to commercial theaters featuring plays about the trial. This article argues that the trial and plays articulated tensions of class and gender pulsating through the city of Naha. From police surveillance to the dispossession of the former ruling class and an influx of working-class women, tensions wrought by Japanese colonialism and urbanization found powerful expression in the trial and plays.