Shō Iku

Shō Iku 尚育王
Official royal portrait of Shō Iku, painted by Mō Chōki in 1852
King of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
Reign	1835–1847
Predecessor	Shō Kō
Successor	Shō Tai
Spouse	Sashiki Aji-ganashi
Concubine	Mafee Aji
Issue	See list Shō Jun, Crown Prince Nagagusuku Shō Tai, Crown Prince Nagagusuku Shō Hitsu, Nakijin Chōshiki Manabetaru, Princess Kokuba Maushigane, Princess Suekichi Onmamatsugane, Princess Uema Princess Kanegusuku (Kōchi Chōjō's wife) Makadotaru, Princess Teruya
Father	Shō Kō
Mother	Gushikawa Aji-ganashi
Born	(1813-08-19)19 August 1813
Died	25 October 1847(1847-10-25) (aged 34)

Shō Iku (尚 育, 1813–1847) was a king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom from 1835 to 1847. He was the eldest son of Shō Kō. According to Chūzan Seifu (中山世譜), he was appointed Sessei (摂政) in 1828, in place of his ailing father who was afflicted by a mental illness. Shō Kō died in 1835, Shō Iku was installed as the king.

Shō Iku was a Confucian scholar, and had dedicated his life to education. But during his reign, the financial crisis grew more and more serious. When a French ship arrived in Naha in 1844, Ryūkyū was forced to trade with France. It was the first contact with Western countries. Théodore-Augustin Forcade, a French priest sent by Paris Foreign Missions Society, came to Ryūkyū to spread the Christian Gospel. Bernard Jean Bettelheim, a British Protestant missionary, also arrived in Ryūkyū in 1846. Bettelheim established the first foreign hospital on the island at the Naminoue Gokoku-ji Temple.

The king died in 1847, his second son Shō Tai succeeded him as the last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.