Ryūkyū Kingdom

—the history of the Ryūkyū Kingdom began with the , . Hashi had already conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting the island of Okinawa for the first time, and founding the first Shō Dynasty.

Shō Hashi adopted the Chinese hierarchical court system, built Shuri Castle and the town as his capital, and constructed Naha harbor. Several generations later, 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.

Asian trade (15th–16th century)

Diplomatically, the kingdom established tributary relations with China during its Ming and Qing Dynasties. It also developed trade relations with Japan, Korea and many Southeast Asian countries, including Siam, Pattani, Malacca, Champa, Đại Việt, and Java.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ryūkyū Kingdom emerged as the main trading intermediary in Eastern Asia. Japanese products—silver, swords, fans, lacquer-ware, 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, with 61 of them bound for Siam, 10 for Malacca, 10 for Pattani and 8 for Java, among others.

Commercial activities in the kingdom diminished around 1570 with the rise of Chinese merchants and the intervention of Portuguese and Spanish ships, corresponding with the start of the Red Seal Ship system in Japan.

Japanese invasion(1609)

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 occupation of the Ryūkyūs 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 did seize control over some territory of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, notably the Amami-Ōshima island group, which was incorporated into the Satsuma domain.

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. Since Ming China prohibited trade with Japan, Satsuma domain, with the blessing of the Tokugawa "bakufu" (shogunal government), 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 "bakufu" and Satsuma "han" 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 daimyo, but his land was not counted 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 daimyo 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—if they did, they would end the trade. 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.

When Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry sailed to Japan to force Japan to open up trade relations with the United States in the 1850s, he first stopped in the Ryūkyūs, as many Western sailors had before him, and forced the Ryūkyū Kingdom to sign Unequal Treaties opening the Ryūkyūs up to American trade. From there, he continued on to Edo.

Following the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji Japanese government abolished the Ryūkyū Kingdom, formally annexing the islands to Japan as Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. The Amami-Ōshima island group which had been integrated into Satsuma domain became a part of Kagoshima prefecture. King Shō Tai, the last king of the Ryūkyūs, was moved to Tokyo and was made a Marquis (see Kazoku), as were many other Japanese aristocrats, and died there in 1901. There were various suppressed proponents of independence from Satsuma/Japan during this period, and from China as well, to which Ryūkyū was a tributary state. [ [http://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/清日之间关于琉球问题的交涉 清日之间关于琉球问题的交涉] ] [石源華，〈論戰後琉球獨立運動及琉球歸屬問題〉，《第五次中華民國史國際學術討論會會議論文集》（2006年7月）] [琉球再被日據的開端和我政府應有之努力，陶元珍，1953年在台北出版的《新中国评论》第五卷第三期] [ [http://www.law.osaka-u.ac.jp/~c-forum/symposium/0611hsuyuming.htm 戰後處理與地緣政治下的國民政府對琉政策：以40、50年代為中心 許育銘] ] Qing China made some diplomatic protests to the Japanese government, but these proved to have little effect. However, no significant popular movement arose during this time.

Major events

*1372 The first Ming dynasty envoy visits Okinawa, which had been divided into three kingdoms, during the Sanzan period. Formal tributary relations with the Chinese Empire begin.
*1419 Chūzan, led by Shō Hashi, occupies Nakijin gusuku, capital of Hokuzan.
*1429 Chūzan occupies Shimajiri Osato gusuku, capital of Nanzan, unifying Okinawa Island. Shō Hashi establishes the Kingdom of Ryūkyū, ruling as king with his capital at Shuri (now part of modern-day Naha).
*1470 Shō En (Kanemaru) establishes the Second Shō Dynasty.
*1477 The third king, Shō Shin, ascends to the throne. Golden age of the kingdom.
*1609 (April 5) "daimyō" (Lord) of Satsuma in southern Kyūshū conquers the kingdom. King of Ryūkyū becomes a Japanese vassal.
*1624 Lord of Satsuma annexes the Amami Islands.
*1846 Dr. Bernard Jean Bettelheim (d. 1870), a British Protestant missionary, arrives in Ryūkyū Kingdom. He establishes the first foreign hospital on the island at the Nami-no-ue Temple.
*1853 Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy visits the kingdom. Betteleheim leaves with Perry.
*1866 The last official mission from the Qing Empire visits the kingdom.
*1874 The last tributary envoy to China is dispatched from Naha.
*1879 Japan replaces the Ryūkyū han with Okinawa Prefecture, formally annexing the islands. King nihongo|Shō Tai|尚泰 is given the title of nihongo|marquis|藩王|Han'ō and removed to Tokyo.

List of Ryūkyū Kings

Notes

See also

* Ryukyuan people
* Ryukyu Islands
* History of Ryukyu Islands
* History of Amami Islands
* History of Sakishima Islands
* Gusuku
* Tamaudun (intact royal tombs)
* Ryūkyū independence movement

External links

* [http://members.tripod.com/~MickMc/history.html History of Okinawa]
* [http://www.uchinanchu.org/uchinanchu/history_of_uchinanchu.htm Brief History of the Uchinanchu (Okinawans)]
* National Archives of Japan: [http://jpimg.digital.archives.go.jp/kouseisai/category/emaki/ryukyutyuzan_e.html "Ryukyu Chuzano ryoshisha tojogyoretsu," scroll illustrating procession of Ryukyu emissary to Edo, "Hōei" 7 (1710)]

References

*Matsuda, Mitsugu (2001) "The Government of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, 1609–1872: a dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Hawaii in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, January 1967", Gushikawa : Yui Pub., 283 p., ISBN 4-946539-16-6
*Smits, Gregory (1999) "Visions of Ryukyu: identity and ideology in early-modern thought and politics", Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, 213 p., ISBN 0-82482-037-1