Ryūkyū Kingdom 琉球國 |
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Capital | Shuri | ||||
Language(s) | Ryukyuan (native languages), Japanese | ||||
Religion | native Ryukyuan religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, Taoism | ||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||
King (国王) | |||||
- 1429–1439 | Shō Hashi | ||||
- 1477–1526 | Shō Shin | ||||
- 1587–1620 | Shō Nei | ||||
- 1848–1879 | Shō Tai | ||||
Sessei (摂政) | |||||
- 1666–1673 | Shō Shōken | ||||
Kokushi (国司) | |||||
- 1751–1752 | Sai On | ||||
Legislature | Shuri Ō-fu (首里王府), Sanshikan (三司官) | ||||
History | |||||
- Unification | 1429 | ||||
- Satsuma invasion | 5 April 1609 | ||||
- Prefecture reform | 1871 | ||||
- Annexed by Japan | March 11, 1879 | ||||
Area | 2,271 km2 (877 sq mi) | ||||
¹ Ming and Qing dynasties. |
The Ryūkyū Kingdom (Japanese: 琉球王国 Ryūkyū Ōkoku; Ryukyuan: 琉球國 Ruuchuu-kuku, traditional Chinese: 琉球國, Chinese: 琉球国; pinyin: Liúqiú Guó; Manchu: Lio Kio Gurun; historical English name: Lewchew, Luchu) was an independent kingdom which ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th century to the 19th century. The Kings of Ryūkyū unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan. Despite its small size, the kingdom played a central role in the maritime trade networks of medieval East and Southeast Asia.
Contents |
In the 14th century, small domains scattered on Okinawa Island were unified into three principalities: Hokuzan (北山 , Northern Mountain), Chūzan (中山 , Central Mountain) and Nanzan (南山 , Southern Mountain). This was known as the Three Kingdoms or Sanzan (三山, Three Mountains) period. Hokuzan, which constituted much of the northern half of the island, was the largest in terms of land area, and strong militarily, but was economically the weakest of the three. Nanzan comprised the southern portion of the island. Chūzan lay in the center of the island, and was the strongest economically. Its political capital at Shuri, neighbored the major trade port of Naha and center of traditional Chinese learning, Kumemura. These sites, and Chūzan as a whole, would continue to form the center of the Ryūkyū Kingdom until its abolition.
Many Chinese moved to Ryukyu to serve the government or engage in business during this period. The Ming dynasty Chinese sent from Fujian 36 Chinese families at the request of the Ryukyuan King to manage oceanic dealings in the kingdom in 1392 during the Hongwu Emperor's reign. Many Ryukuan officials were descended from these Chinese immigrants, being born in China or having Chinese grandfathers.[1] They assisted in the Ryukyuans in advancing their techonology and diplomatic relations.[2][3][4] The Chinese used the fact that the descendants of these Chinese families still lived on Ryukyu as justification for China's "special claim" on the islands, as Li Hongzhang told Ulysses S. Grant. The Ryukyu had paid tribute to China for hundreds of years, and the Chinese reserved certrain trade rights for them in an amicable and beneficial relationship.[5]
These three principalities, or tribal federations, led by major chieftains, battled, and Chūzan emerged victorious, and the Chūzan leaders were officially recognized by Ming dynasty China as the rightful kings over those of Nanzan and Hokuzan, thus lending great legitimacy to their claims, if not victory outright. The ruler of Chūzan passed his throne to King Hashi; Hashi conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting the island of Okinawa for the first time, and founded the first Shō Dynasty. Hashi received the surname "Shang" 尚 from the Ming emperor in 1421, becoming known as Shang Bazhi (尚巴志).
Shang Bazhi adopted the Chinese hierarchical court system, built Shuri Castle and the town as his capital, and constructed Naha harbor. In 1469, King Shō Toku died without a male heir; a palatine servant declared he was Toku's adopted son and gained Chinese investiture. This pretender, Shō En, began the Second Shō Dynasty. Ryūkyū's golden age occurred during the reign of Shō Shin, the second king of that dynasty, who reigned from 1478 to 1526.
The kingdom extended its authority over the southernmost islands in the Ryukyu archipelago by the end of the 15th century, and by 1571 the Amami-Ōshima Islands, to the north, near Kyūshū, were incorporated into the kingdom as well.[6] While the kingdom's political system was adopted, and the authority of Shuri recognized, in the Amami-Ōshima Islands, however, the kingdom's authority over the Sakishima Islands to the south remained for centuries at the level of a tributary-suzerain relationship.[7]
For nearly two hundred years, the Ryūkyū Kingdom would thrive as a key player in maritime trade with Southeast and East Asia.[8] Central to the kingdom's maritime activities was the continuation of the tributary relationship with Ming Dynasty China, begun by Chūzan in 1372,[6][9] and enjoyed by the three Okinawan kingdoms which preceded it. China provided ships for Ryūkyū's maritime trade activities,[10] allowed a limited number of Ryukyuans to study at the Imperial Academy in Beijing, and formally recognized the authority of the King of Chūzan, allowing the kingdom to trade formally at Ming ports. Ryukyuan ships, often provided by China, traded at ports across the entire region as well, journeying to ports in Korea, China, and Japan, as well as Siam, Malacca, Java, Sumatra, Đại Việt (Vietnam), Pattani, and Palembang, among others in the region.[11]
Japanese products—silver, swords, fans, lacquerware, folding screens—and Chinese products—medicinal herbs, minted coins, glazed ceramics, brocades, textiles—were traded within the kingdom for Southeast Asian sappanwood, rhino horn, tin, sugar, iron, ambergris, Indian ivory and Arabian frankincense. Altogether, 150 voyages between the kingdom and Southeast Asia on Ryūkyūan ships were recorded in the Rekidai Hōan, an official record of diplomatic documents compiled by the kingdom, as having taken place between 1424 and the 1630s, with 61 of them bound for Siam, 10 for Malacca, 10 for Pattani and 8 for Java, among others.[11]
The Chinese policy of hai jin (海禁, "sea bans"), limiting trade with China to tributary states and those with formal authorization, along with the accompanying preferential treatment of the Ming Court towards Ryūkyū, allowed the kingdom to flourish and prosper for roughly 150 years.[12] In the late 16th century, however, the kingdom's commercial prosperity fell into decline. The decline of the wokou ("Japanese pirate") threat among other factors led to the gradual loss of Chinese preferential treatment;[13] the kingdom also suffered from increased maritime competition from Europeans.[6]
Around 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked the Ryūkyū Kingdom to aid in his campaign to conquer Korea. If successful, Hideyoshi intended to then move against China. As the Ryūkyū Kingdom was a tributary state of the Ming Dynasty, the request was refused. The Tokugawa shogunate that emerged following Hideyoshi's fall authorized the Shimazu family—feudal lords of the Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima prefecture)—to send an expeditionary force to conquer the Ryūkyūs. The subsequent invasion took place in 1609.[6] Occupation occurred fairly quickly, with a minimum of armed resistance, and King Shō Nei was taken as a prisoner to the Satsuma domain and later to Edo (modern day Tokyo). When he was released two years later, the Ryūkyū Kingdom regained a degree of autonomy; however, the Satsuma domain seized control over some territory of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, notably the Amami-Ōshima island group, which was incorporated into the Satsuma domain and remains a part of Kagoshima prefecture, not Okinawa prefecture, today.
The Ryūkyū Kingdom found itself in a period of "dual subordination" to Japan and China, wherein Ryūkyūan tributary relations were maintained with both the Tokugawa shogunate and the Ming Chinese court. In 1655, tribute relations between Ryukyu and Qing Dynasty (the dynasty that followed Ming on 1644) were formally approved by the shogunate. This was seen to be justified, in part, because of the desire to avoid giving Qing any reason for military action against Japan.[14]
Since Ming China prohibited trade with Japan, the Satsuma domain, with the blessing of the Tokugawa shogunate, used the trade relations of the kingdom to continue to maintain trade relations with China. Considering that Japan had previously severed ties with most of the European countries except the Dutch, such trade relations proved especially crucial to both the Tokugawa shogunate and Satsuma domain which would use its power and influence, gained in this way, to help overthrow the shogunate in the 1860s.
The Ryūkyūan king was a vassal of the Satsuma daimyō, but his land was not considered as part of any han (fief): up until the formal annexation of the islands and abolition of the kingdom in 1879, the Ryūkyūs were not truly considered part of Japan, and the Ryūkyūan people not considered Japanese. Though technically under the control of Satsuma, Ryūkyū was given a great degree of autonomy, to best serve the interests of the Satsuma daimyō and those of the shogunate, in trading with China. Ryūkyū was a tributary state of China, and since Japan had no formal diplomatic relations with China, it was essential that Beijing not realize that Ryūkyū was controlled by Japan. Thus, ironically, Satsuma—and the shogunate—was obliged to be mostly hands-off in terms of not visibly or forcibly occupying Ryūkyū or controlling the policies and laws there. The situation benefited all three parties involved—the Ryūkyū royal government, the Satsuma daimyo, and the shogunate—to make Ryūkyū seem as much a distinctive and foreign country as possible. Japanese were prohibited from visiting Ryūkyū without shogunal permission, and the Ryūkyūans were forbidden from adopting Japanese names, clothes, or customs. They were even forbidden from acknowledging their knowledge of the Japanese language during their trips to Edo; the Shimazu family, daimyo of Satsuma, gained great prestige by putting on a show of parading the King, officials, and other people of Ryūkyū to and through Edo. As the only han to have a king and an entire kingdom as vassals, Satsuma gained significantly from Ryūkyū's exoticness, reinforcing that it was an entire separate kingdom.
In 1872, the Japanese tributary kingdom was reconfigured as the Ryūkyū Province.[15] The Ryūkyū kingdom was made part of Japan as the Ryūkyū han.[16] At the same time, the fiction of independence was maintained for diplomatic reasons.[17]
The Meiji Japanese government abolished the Ryūkyū Kingdom when the islands were incorporated as Okinawa Prefecture on March 11, 1879. The Amami-Ōshima island group which had been integrated into Satsuma domain became a part of Kagoshima prefecture. The last king of the Ryūkyūs was forced to relocate to Tokyo; and he was given a compensating kazoku rank as Marquis Shō Tai.[18] His death in 1901 diminished the historic connections with the former kingdom.[19]
Name | Kanji | Reign | Line or Dynasty | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Shunten | 舜天 | 1187–1237 | Tenson Lineage | |
Shunbajunki | 舜馬順熈 | 1238–1248 | Tenson Lineage | |
Gihon | 義本 | 1249–1259 | Tenson Lineage | |
Eisō | 英祖 | 1260–1299 | Eisō Lineage | |
Taisei | 大成 | 1300–1308 | Eisō Lineage | |
Eiji | 英慈 | 1309–1313 | Eisō Lineage |
Tamagusuku | 玉城 | 1314–1336 | Eisō Lineage | |
Seii | 西威 | 1337–1354 | Eisō Lineage | |
Satto | 察度 | 1355–1397 | - | |
Bunei | 武寧 | 1398–1406 | - | |
Shō Shishō | 尚思紹 | 1407–1421 | First Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Hashi | 尚巴志 | 1422–1429 | First Shō Dynasty | as King of Chūzan |
Name | Kanji | Reign | Line or Dynasty | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Shō Hashi | 尚巴志 | 1429–1439 | First Shō Dynasty | as King of Ryūkyū |
Shō Chū | 尚忠 | 1440–1442 | First Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Shitatsu | 尚思達 | 1443–1449 | First Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Kinpuku | 尚金福 | 1450–1453 | First Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Taikyū | 尚泰久 | 1454–1460 | First Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Toku | 尚徳 | 1461–1469 | First Shō Dynasty | |
Shō En | 尚円 | 1470–1476 | Second Shō Dynasty | AKA Kanamaru Uchima |
Shō Sen'i | 尚宣威 | 1477 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Shin | 尚真 | 1477–1526 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Sei | 尚清 | 1527–1555 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Gen | 尚元 | 1556–1572 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Ei | 尚永 | 1573–1586 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Nei | 尚寧 | 1587–1620 | Second Shō Dynasty | ruled during Satsuma invasion; first king to be Satsuma vassal |
Shō Hō | 尚豊 | 1621–1640 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Ken | 尚賢 | 1641–1647 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Shitsu | 尚質 | 1648–1668 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Shōken | 向象賢 | 1666–1673 | Sessei (prime minister) | first Ryūkyūan historian; lived 1617–1675 |
Shō Tei | 尚貞 | 1669–1709 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Eki | 尚益 | 1710–1712 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Kei | 尚敬 | 1713–1751 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Sai On | 蔡温 | 1711–1752 | State instructor/regent | major Ryūkyūan scholar and historian; lived 1682–1761 |
Shō Boku | 尚穆 | 1752–1795 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō On | 尚温 | 1796–1802 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Sei (r. 1803) | 尚成 | 1803 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Kō | 尚灝 | 1804–1828 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Iku | 尚育 | 1829–1847 | Second Shō Dynasty | |
Shō Tai | 尚泰 | 1848–March 11, 1879 | Second Shō Dynasty | last Ryūkyū king |