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The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a tributary state of imperial Ming China by the Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island to end the Sanzan period, and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands and Sakishima Islands. The Ryukyu Kingdom played a central role in the maritime trade networks of medieval East Asia and Southeast Asia despite its small size. The Ryukyu Kingdom became a vassal state of the Satsuma Domain of Japan after the invasion of Ryukyu in 1609 but retained de jure independence until it was transformed into the Ryukyu Domain by the Empire of Japan in 1872. The Ryukyu Kingdom was formally annexed and dissolved by Japan in 1879 to form Okinawa Prefecture, and the Ryukyuan monarchy was integrated into the new Japanese nobility.
The Sanzan period is a period in the history of the Okinawa Islands when three lines of kings, namely Sanhoku, Chūzan and Sannan, are said to have co-existed on Okinawa Island. It is said to have started during King Tamagusuku's reign and, according to Sai On's edition of the Chūzan Seifu (1725), ended in 1429 when Shō Hashi unified the island. Historical records of the period are fragmentary and mutually conflicting. Some even question the co-existence of the three polities.
Shō Hashi was the last King of Chūzan and the first king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, uniting the three polities of Chūzan, Hokuzan, and Nanzan by conquest and ending the Sanzan period.
Bunei was King of Chūzan. He was the second and last ruler of the Satto dynasty.
Satto (察度) was King of Chūzan. He is the first ruler of Okinawa Island who was recorded by contemporary sources. His reign was marked by expansion and development of Chūzan's trade relations with other states, and the beginning of Okinawa's tributary relations with Ming dynasty China, a relationship that continued for roughly five hundred years, almost until the fall of the Qing dynasty.
Chūzan (中山) was one of three kingdoms which controlled Okinawa in the 14th century. Okinawa, previously controlled by a number of local chieftains or lords, loosely bound by a paramount chieftain or king of the entire island, split into these three more solidly defined kingdoms within a few years after 1314; the Sanzan period thus began, and would end roughly one hundred years later, when Chūzan's King Shō Hashi conquered Hokuzan in 1419 and Nanzan in 1429.
Shō Nei was king of the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1587 to 1620. He reigned during the 1609 invasion of Ryukyu and was the first king of Ryukyu to be a vassal to the Shimazu clan of Satsuma, a Japanese feudal domain.
Kumi odori is a form of narrative traditional Ryūkyūan dance. Kumi odori or Kumi wudui means "combination dance" or "ensemble dance".
Over the course of Japan's Edo period, the Ryūkyū Kingdom sent eighteen missions to Edo, the capital of Tokugawa Japan. The unique pattern of these diplomatic exchanges evolved from models established by the Chinese, but without denoting any predetermined relationship to China or to the Chinese world order. The Kingdom became a vassal to the Japanese feudal domain (han) of Satsuma following Satsuma's 1609 invasion of Ryūkyū, and as such were expected to pay tribute to the shogunate; the missions also served as a great source of prestige for Satsuma, the only han to claim any foreign polity, let alone a kingdom, as its vassal.
Sai On (蔡温) (1682–1762), or Cai Wen in Chinese, also known as Gushi-chan Bunjaku, was a scholar-bureaucrat official of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, serving as regent, instructor, and advisor to King Shō Kei. He is renowned for the many reforms he initiated and oversaw, and is among the most famous figures in Okinawan history. He edited Chūzan Seifu, a rewrite of Chūzan Seikan by his father Sai Taku.
Shō Shitsu was a king of the Ryukyu Kingdom who held the throne from 1648 until his death in 1668.
King of Ryūkyū, also known as King of Lew Chew, King of Chūzan, or more officially Ryūkyū Kingdom's King of Chūzan, was a title held by several lineages from Okinawa Island until 1879. It effectively started in 1372 when Satto greeted a Chinese envoy from the newly established Ming dynasty although his son Bunei was the first to be officially recognized as the King of Chūzan. However, the official Okinawan narrative traces the line of succession further back to the legendary ruler Shunten, who supposedly ascended to the throne in 1187. Another peculiar feature of the official Okinawan narrative is the notion of the single line of succession, instead of Chinese-style dynastic changes, even though they clearly recognized that several unrelated lineages had taken over the position.
Tamagusuku Ueekata Chōkun, also known by the Chinese-style name Shō Juyū, was a Ryūkyūan aristocrat-bureaucrat credited with the creation of the Ryūkyūan dance-drama form known as kumi odori.
Ryukyuan missions to Joseon were diplomatic and trade ventures of the Ryūkyū Kingdom which were intermittently sent in the years 1392–1879. These diplomatic contacts were within the Sinocentric system of bilateral and multinational relationships in East Asia. The Ryukyuan King Satto established formal relations with the Joseon court.
Ryukyuan missions to Imperial China were diplomatic missions that were intermittently sent from the Ryukyuan kings to the Ming and Qing emperors. These diplomatic contacts were within the Sinocentric system of bilateral and multinational relationships in East Asia. A total of 347 Ryukyuan missions to China have been recorded.
Joseon missions to the Ryukyu Kingdom were diplomatic and trade ventures of the Joseon dynasty that were intermittently sent after 1392. These diplomatic contacts were within the Sinocentric system of bilateral and multinational relationships in East Asia. The Ryukyuan King Satto established formal relations with the Joseon court.
The military of the Ryukyu Kingdom defended the kingdom from 1429 until 1879. It had roots in the late army of Chūzan, which became the Ryukyu Kingdom under the leadership of King Shō Hashi. The Ryukyuan military operated throughout the Ryukyu Islands, the East China Sea, and elsewhere that Ryukyuan ships went. Ryukyu primarily fought with other Ryukyuan kingdoms and chiefdoms, but also Japanese samurai from Satsuma Domain and pirates. Soldiers were stationed aboard ships and Ryukyuan fortifications. The Ryukyuan military declined after the 17th century until it was abolished following the Japanese annexation of Ryukyu in 1879.
Chatan Ueekata Chōchō, also known by his Chinese style name Shō Kokuyō, was a bureaucrat of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Aranpō, also known by Yalanpao, was a politician and diplomat of Chūzan Kingdom.
The foreign relations of the Ryukyu Kingdom were shaped through heavy mutual contact and trade with surrounding nations, most notably Japan and China. The influence exerted by both of these nations differ throughout each era of Ryukyuan history. To a lesser extent, other nations played a role in Ryukyuan diplomacy.
References
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- Suganuma, Unryu. (2000). Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations: Irredentism and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824821593 ISBN 9780824824938; OCLC 170955369
- Chūzan Seifu (ja:中山世譜)