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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.
Shō Shōken, also known as Haneji Ōji Chōshū, was a Ryukyuan scholar and served as sessei, a post often translated as "prime minister," from 1666 to 1673. Shō wrote the first history of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Chūzan Seikan, and enacted a number of practical political reforms aimed at improving Ryukyu's prosperity and dignity in the eyes of China and Japan.
Shō Hashi was a king of the Okinawan polity of Chūzan, traditionally described as the unifier of Okinawa and the founder of the Ryukyu Kingdom. He was the son of the lord Shō Shishō of the First Shō dynasty. Modern scholarship has connected Shishō's potential father, Samekawa, to a family of Southern Court-affiliated seafarers from southwestern Kyushu, where Hashi was possibly born. Hashi became the lord of Sashiki Castle in southern Okinawa in 1392, becoming a noted military leader. In 1407, following a diplomatic incident between the Chūzan king Bunei and the Ming dynasty court, Shō Shishō took the throne, attributed by the Ryukyuan official histories to a coup d'état by Hashi to install his father as king.
Yukatchu, also known as Samuree (サムレー), were the aristocracy of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The scholar-bureaucrats of classical Chinese studies living in Kumemura held the majority of government positions.
The Sanshikan, or Council of Three, was a government body of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, which originally developed out of a council of regents.
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.
Hokuzan, also known as Sanhoku (山北) before the 18th century, located in the north of Okinawa Island, was one of three independent political entities which controlled Okinawa in the 14th century during Sanzan period. The political entity was identified as a tiny country, a kingdom, or a principality by modern historians, however the ruler of Hokuzan was in fact not "kings" at all, but petty lords with their own retainers owing their direct service, and their own estates.
Kumemura was an Okinawan community of scholars, bureaucrats, and diplomats in the port city of Naha near the royal capital of Shuri, which was a center of culture and learning during the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The people of Kumemura, traditionally believed to all be descendants of the Chinese immigrants who first settled there in 1392, came to form an important and aristocratic class of scholar-bureaucrats, the yukatchu, who dominated the royal bureaucracy, and served as government officials at home, and as diplomats in relations with China, Japan, and others.
Shō Shin was a king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the third ruler of the second Shō dynasty. Shō Shin's long reign has been described as "the Great Days of Chūzan", a period of great peace and relative prosperity. He was the son of Shō En, the founder of the dynasty, by Yosoidon, Shō En's second wife, often referred to as the queen mother. He succeeded his uncle, Shō Sen'i, who was forced to abdicate in his favor.
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.
Shō Taikyū (1410–1460) was an Okinawan king of the first Shō dynasty of the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1454 to 1460. Although described in the official histories of Ryukyu and the Ming annals as a relative of the previous rulers, he may have been an unrelated ruler of Goeku, taking power amidst a succession crisis between two other lords which resulted in the destruction of Shuri Castle. He rebuilt the castle during his reign and saw the transformation of Shuri into the political and economic center of Okinawa. A sponsor of Zen Buddhism, he invited Japanese monks to settle in the kingdom and authorized the foundation of four Buddhist temples in his kingdom. He commissioned a number of large bronze bells, including the inscribed Bridge of Nations Bell which was displayed at Shuri. The kingdom's first domestic coinage was produced during his reign.
The Ryukyuan mon was the currency used in the Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyuan monetary system was based on that of China, like those of many nations in the Sinosphere, with the mon serving as the basic unit, just as with the Japanese mon, Vietnamese văn, and Korean mun. Like Japan had also done for centuries, the Ryukyuans often made use of the already-existing Chinese cash coins when physical currency was needed.
Chatan Ueekata Chōchō, also known by his Chinese style name Shō Kokuyō, was a bureaucrat of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Tomigusuku Wōji Chōshun, also known by his Chinese style name Shō Kai, was a royal of Ryukyu Kingdom.
Wakugawa Ueekata Chōkyō also known by his Chinese style name Shō Hōten, was a bureaucrat of Ryukyu Kingdom.
Miyahira Ueekata Ryōtei, also known by his Chinese style name Ba Sentetsu, was a bureaucrat of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Yonabaru Ueekata Ryōku, also known by his Chinese style name Ba Kokuki, was a bureaucrat of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
References
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(April 2009) |
- Smits, Gregory (1999). Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
