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Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics by Gregory Smits
Between 1609 and 1879, the geographical, political, and ideological status of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (modern Okinawa) was characterized by its ambiguity. It was subordinate to its larger neighbors, China and Japan, yet an integral part of neither. In this innovative and provocative study, Gregory Smits explores early-modern perceptions of Ryukyu and their effect on its political culture and institutions. He describes the major historical circumstances that informed early-modern discourses of Ryukyuan identity and examines the strategies used by leading intellectual and political figures to fashion, promote, and implement their visions of Ryukyu. Visions of Ryukyu advances a new interpretation of Ryukyuan history. Rather than regarding early-modern Ryukyu as an appendage of China or Japan, it places the kingdom at the center, highlighting Ryukyuan subjectivity and agency and giving historical depth to modern and contemporary debates on Okinawan identity.
Hardcover
First published March 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 17, 2019
I really liked the detailed look at Ryukyu intellectuals and their teachings/writings/views, as well as the examination of the influence of various schools of thought from the regions we call China and Japan today. I do wish there was more information about the lower class in Ryukyu, and more about Shuri castle and the Monarchy.
May 13, 2021
As a well-decade'd adult, revisiting foreign as well as our own country's cultures and histories, has been eye-opening, startling at times (actually, most times), and has me rushing to my bedside on bended knee to pray to the library (and caffeine) gods to add another 24 hrs to each day that one could completely dedicate to reading (without any guilt of course).
Whether through historical novels, biographies or historical accountings, profound revelations have me saying to myself "I never knew!" I find myself disquieted and then dismayed over what I didn't get exposed to in both lower and higher education. And how I lived through adulthood less the knowledge of what my fellow Peoples of the world had lived through before the internet keyboard began to put some nuanced tidbits at my fingertips. Now, I find myself saying "I wish I knew."
Moving forward, I've been diving down into some deep rabbit holes of historical pieces thanks to ebooks, scholar.google.com, campus and local libraries, Amazon, and not to mention Goodreads, and a few good historically related novels to discover as much as I can. I am in search, 'to learn - to know' about my own Eastern Asia Pacific Islands Peoples' history. Not Japanese, not Okinawan, not western recountings after immigration and assimilation (both forced and wantingly adopted), but from the branches of my ancestral tree - their culture and land - Ryukyan. My grandfather would have grown up on a tiny island deeply rooted in a generational household, an uyanuyaa, absorbing and directly learning of passed-down culture spoken in shimakutuba, a language of his aja village.
A full 4-stars for this book's understanding of it's limits, and so then pointing the reader towards more. This is a book in a rabbit hole directly under my grandfather's and great-grandfather's branches. At the end of it, I am looking straight at some deeper roots this Reader Rabbit is anxious to explore.
Whether through historical novels, biographies or historical accountings, profound revelations have me saying to myself "I never knew!" I find myself disquieted and then dismayed over what I didn't get exposed to in both lower and higher education. And how I lived through adulthood less the knowledge of what my fellow Peoples of the world had lived through before the internet keyboard began to put some nuanced tidbits at my fingertips. Now, I find myself saying "I wish I knew."
Moving forward, I've been diving down into some deep rabbit holes of historical pieces thanks to ebooks, scholar.google.com, campus and local libraries, Amazon, and not to mention Goodreads, and a few good historically related novels to discover as much as I can. I am in search, 'to learn - to know' about my own Eastern Asia Pacific Islands Peoples' history. Not Japanese, not Okinawan, not western recountings after immigration and assimilation (both forced and wantingly adopted), but from the branches of my ancestral tree - their culture and land - Ryukyan. My grandfather would have grown up on a tiny island deeply rooted in a generational household, an uyanuyaa, absorbing and directly learning of passed-down culture spoken in shimakutuba, a language of his aja village.
A full 4-stars for this book's understanding of it's limits, and so then pointing the reader towards more. This is a book in a rabbit hole directly under my grandfather's and great-grandfather's branches. At the end of it, I am looking straight at some deeper roots this Reader Rabbit is anxious to explore.
February 2, 2021
sort of what's on the box, fairly in-depth and readable as far as 17th century elite ideologies in political backwaters goes. thoughtfully organized and convincingly argued. occasionally gets lost in the weeds when explaining the finer points of Confucian cosmology. also doesn't seem to really tie back to any arguments regarding "east asian pre-modern statecraft" at large; it's not a comparative study so that's okay, but i feel it suffers a bit by concluding without much oomph and putting the central material in a framework of regional understanding.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews