Ryukyu Kingdom

From about the twelfth century, agriculture and trade supported local lords (aji) who built walled strongholds known as gusuku, often on hilltops and with sacred groves inside. In the fourteenth century three kingdoms formed on Okinawa Island: Hokuzan in the north, Chūzan in the centre and Nanzan in the south. In 1372 King Satto of Chūzan responded to an invitation from the Ming emperor and began tribute relations with China, which the other kingdoms soon followed.

Shō Hashi, who had seized power in Chūzan, conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting Okinawa under what is called the First Shō dynasty. In 1470, after a coup, a court official took the throne as Shō En, founding the Second Shō dynasty, which ruled until 1879. His son Shō Shin (r. 1477–1527) centralised the kingdom, required the aji to live at Shuri and organised a state religion headed by high priestesses.

Ryukyu's golden age of trade lasted from the late fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century. Its ships, often crewed and guided by Chinese settlers from the community at Kume near Naha, sailed to China, Japan, Korea, Siam, Malacca, Java and Sumatra. The kingdom's special position in the Ming tribute system allowed it to act as an intermediary when direct trade between China and Japan was restricted. A bronze bell cast in 1458 for Shuri Castle proclaimed Ryukyu 'the bridge between all nations' (bankoku shinryō).

From the mid-sixteenth century Portuguese and Chinese private traders and the decline of Ming restrictions eroded this role, and Ryukyu's trade contracted.

In 1609 the Shimazu lords of Satsuma, with the approval of the Tokugawa shogunate, invaded Ryukyu, captured Shuri and took King Shō Nei to Kagoshima. The Amami Islands were placed under Satsuma's direct rule. The rest of the kingdom kept its king and administration but paid tribute to Satsuma, and its foreign trade was controlled by the domain. At the same time Ryukyu continued to send tribute missions to China and to receive Chinese investiture envoys for each new king – arrangements that Satsuma deliberately concealed from the Chinese to preserve the lucrative trade.

Ryukyu also sent embassies to Edo on the accession of a new shōgun or king, in which its envoys were required to appear in Chinese-style dress to emphasise their foreignness. The statesman Sai On (1682–1762) reformed the kingdom's administration, agriculture and forestry in the eighteenth century.

Ryukyuan religion centres on ancestors, the hearth and sacred groves (utaki), and on the spiritual power of women. Under Shō Shin, a hierarchy of priestesses (noro) was organised under the kikoe-ōkimi, the chief priestess, usually a sister or close relative of the king, who performed rituals for the kingdom's protection. Sēfa-utaki in southern Okinawa, where she was installed, is the most sacred site of the Ryukyuan tradition. Buddhism and Confucianism were also patronised by the court, and Confucian learning spread through the Kume scholars.

Shuri Castle, with its red-lacquered main hall combining Chinese and Japanese architectural features, was the centre of court life and the stage for receptions of Chinese envoys. For these occasions the court official Tamagusuku Chōkun created kumiodori, a musical theatre combining dialogue, song and dance, first performed in 1719. The three-stringed sanshin, derived from the Chinese sanxian, became the central instrument of Ryukyuan music and later inspired the Japanese shamisen. Distinctive crafts include bingata stencil-dyed textiles, Bashōfu banana-fibre cloth, lacquerware and pottery from the kilns of Tsuboya in Naha. The unarmed fighting art tī, influenced by Chinese martial arts, developed into karate.

Western ships called at Ryukyu in the nineteenth century; Commodore Perry visited Naha several times in 1853–1854 and concluded a compact with the kingdom. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan moved to incorporate Ryukyu fully. In 1872 it declared the kingdom a 'domain' under the Japanese emperor, and in 1879, in the process known as the Ryūkyū shobun ('disposition of Ryukyu'), it sent officials, police and troops to Shuri, deposed King Shō Tai and established Okinawa Prefecture. The king was moved to Tokyo. The Qing government protested and the question of sovereignty remained diplomatically unresolved until China's defeat in 1895.

After annexation Okinawa was governed as a Japanese prefecture, and policies of assimilation discouraged the Ryukyuan languages, which UNESCO today lists as endangered. Okinawa suffered devastating losses in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, remained under US administration until 1972 and hosts a large share of the US military bases in Japan – historical experiences that shape a strong sense of regional identity. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has recommended that Japan recognise the Ryukyuan people as indigenous; the Japanese government has not done so.

The kingdom's heritage is visible across Okinawa: in the gusuku ruins and royal tombs inscribed as World Heritage in 2000, in Shuri Castle, in the music of the sanshin, the dances of the Eisā festival, karate and Okinawan cuisine.