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The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia
This English translation of a key work by one of Okinawa’s most respected historians, Mamoru Akamine, provides a compelling new picture of the role played by the Ryukyu Kingdom in the history of East Asia. Okinawa Island, from which the present-day Japanese prefecture derives its name, is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, an archipelago that stretches between Japan and Taiwan. In the present volume, Akamine chronicles the rise of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it played a major part in East Asian trade and diplomacy. Then Ryukyu was indeed the cornerstone in a vibrant East Asian trade sphere centered on Ming China, linking what we now call Japan, Korea, and China to Southeast Asia. With historical and cultural connections to both Japan and China, Ryukyu also mediated diplomatically between the two nations, whose leaders more often than not refused to deal with each other directly. But eventually the kingdom became a victim of its own success. Political developments in China and Japan starting in the sixteenth century brought great changes to the region, and in 1609 Ryukyu was invaded by Satsuma, Japan’s southernmost domain. The China-Japan geopolitical rivalry would in time be acted out within Ryukyu itself, as one faction strove to maintain ties with China while another supported union with rapidly modernizing Japan.
Throughout the work Akamine’s approach to Ryukyu history is distinguished by his expert use of Chinese and Korean sources, which allows him to examine events from several different angles. This contributes to a broad, sweeping narrative, revealing an East Asia made up of many shifting and interrelated parts―not just nation states pursuing their own interests. Akamine’s facility with Chinese texts in particular uncovers telling details that add considerably to the historical record. His meticulous account of one of Ryukyu’s tribute missions to China, for example, or the role of feng shui in the design of Shuri Castle, the royal and administrative center of the kingdom, is detailed without being pedantic. As a result, readers will come away with a broader, more informed understanding of Ryukyu’s significance in the region and the complexity of its relations with its neighbors.
Throughout the work Akamine’s approach to Ryukyu history is distinguished by his expert use of Chinese and Korean sources, which allows him to examine events from several different angles. This contributes to a broad, sweeping narrative, revealing an East Asia made up of many shifting and interrelated parts―not just nation states pursuing their own interests. Akamine’s facility with Chinese texts in particular uncovers telling details that add considerably to the historical record. His meticulous account of one of Ryukyu’s tribute missions to China, for example, or the role of feng shui in the design of Shuri Castle, the royal and administrative center of the kingdom, is detailed without being pedantic. As a result, readers will come away with a broader, more informed understanding of Ryukyu’s significance in the region and the complexity of its relations with its neighbors.
- GenresJapanHistoryNonfiction
216 pages, Paperback
Published November 30, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 18, 2017
The title is a misnomer. A major chunk of the narrative talks about Ryukyu desperately trying to salvage their ship from the alternate winds of capricious Japanese and Chinese trade policy.
What I would have liked was for the author to make Ryukyu the hero - you know, since that's what the title says.
To bring to life the unique, global culture that flourished here. To tell us the story of this small, resourceful (?) nation who made the very best out of being stuck between the two giant nations. From where we could draw lessons of diplomacy, of good foreign policy. To make the ruling dynasties - the Sho rulers, heroes of their own tale. To narrate more proactively regarding the worries they might have faced, choices they would have had to make.
Anything, instead of this dry recantation of what seems like a Chinese/Japanese court record.
What I would have liked was for the author to make Ryukyu the hero - you know, since that's what the title says.
To bring to life the unique, global culture that flourished here. To tell us the story of this small, resourceful (?) nation who made the very best out of being stuck between the two giant nations. From where we could draw lessons of diplomacy, of good foreign policy. To make the ruling dynasties - the Sho rulers, heroes of their own tale. To narrate more proactively regarding the worries they might have faced, choices they would have had to make.
Anything, instead of this dry recantation of what seems like a Chinese/Japanese court record.
April 3, 2020
It took me almost a month to read but this is in fact a fascinating and very informative book. It tells the story of the Ryukyu Kingdom, consisting of Okinawa and neighboring islands, up to its amalgamation into Meiji Japan.
Originally there were three kingdoms on the island; when one conquered the others the unified kingdom was born it lived by trade, and its sailors went far and wide.
Unfortunately, in the long run, this made them coveted by both China and Japan. For a long time Ryukyu swore loyalty to both. In the 1600s however they were made a tributary of the Satsuma province of Japan. But they kept this quiet so they could continue to trade. This coincided with Japan closing itself off to the outside world. Ryukyu’s false front allowed Japan and China to unofficially trade.
This lasted til the Meiji Revolution in Japan. Then Okinawa became officially, if perhaps unwillingly, part of new Japan.
Originally there were three kingdoms on the island; when one conquered the others the unified kingdom was born it lived by trade, and its sailors went far and wide.
Unfortunately, in the long run, this made them coveted by both China and Japan. For a long time Ryukyu swore loyalty to both. In the 1600s however they were made a tributary of the Satsuma province of Japan. But they kept this quiet so they could continue to trade. This coincided with Japan closing itself off to the outside world. Ryukyu’s false front allowed Japan and China to unofficially trade.
This lasted til the Meiji Revolution in Japan. Then Okinawa became officially, if perhaps unwillingly, part of new Japan.
April 10, 2024
Companion post here
When it comes to books on the history of Okinawa, I haven’t been able to find much in English. Most of the books I can see cover the battle of Okinawa, or they talk about Okinawa’s diet or karate traditions. So in this way, The Ryukyu Kingdom fills an important void because who doesn’t want to know more about a place they’ve been to?
Translated from Japanese, The Ryukyu Kingdom paints a picture of a kingdom – well actually three kingdoms – as it maintains its autonomy by submitting to two greater powers in the region: China and Japan. Originally three autonomous regions known as the Sanzan (the “Three Mountains” or “Three Mountain Kingdoms”, the Kingdom of Ryukyu was unified in 1429 with the first Sho dynasty. However even before that, the most powerful of the three factions, Chuzan, had already been recognised as a vassal state of Ming-dynasty China in 1372. Around the time of the 16th century, Ryukyu is conquered by the Satsuma under the Japanese Bakufu and thus it begins a process of sinification in order to keep its identity distinct from Japan.
And thus Mamoru Akamine brings us through the tightrope that the Ryukyu kingdom walked for centuries. This was what the royal Ryukyu court called its “great challenge”, where its existence depended on being able to balance the interests of two outside nations. As Akamine writes:
“Ryukyu’s sense of sovereignty was born from this great challenge diplomacy, which itself stemmed from the dual-identity polity, which held Ryukyu to be a vassal of China and a vassal of Japan. And because any slipup in the execution of this great challenge diplomacy would greatly impact the kingdom’s continued existence, the ruling members of the royal government always imbued the challenge with great meaning.”
Because of this focus, the book doesn’t talk much about the internal politics of the Ryukyu Kingdom. We get a good understanding of how their court worked and what were the various ranks, but I didn’t get any sense of the various factions within the courts or between the three kingdoms in the Ryukyu. In a way, the political emphasis is on the relationships between Ryukyu and other nations rather than within Ryukyu itself. If you’re looking for a book that focuses more on the internal history of the Ryukyu kingdom, this may not be what you’re looking for.
This isn’t to say that the book focuses only on the larger political movements. Akamine goes into detail on the rituals involved in trade and tribute missions, along with very interesting descriptions of how the ships looked and what the various flags were for. I didn’t realise that there would be a centipede flag among all the others because the centipede was said to be able to intimidate malicious sea deities and ensure good weather.
As this is my second time reading the book and because I actually took notes the first time I read this in 2019 (I thought I saw a book review but I can’t find it anymore), I could sort of compare what caught my eye this time round. In general, the things that I would have noted down remain the same but I did realise that the theme of finding an identity by balancing between two cultures resonated a lot more strongly now than it did before. And perhaps also because I’ve also been more interested in hanfu and women’s stories in general, I immediately noticed this passing reference to a woman who sounds like she has a story to tell. In Chapter 1, the book writes that a settlement of traders gathered around a merchant named Wang Sheng [J. O Sho] whose Japanese wife gained notoriety. That’s all it says but the footnotes have a bit more information: In 1511, the widow of Wang Sheng was named in an arrest warrant and rounded up along with many others in a raid on Sung merchants ordered by Dazaifu Deputy governor Muneyori. Some historians believe she was Japanese but not all accounts say so and I am intrigued! What was her name? Why was she singled out? Was she the reason why the traders gathered around Wang Sheng? What was it like to be living in that time period? I want to know but I’m not sure where to start.
Overall, if you’ve got an interest in Okinawan history or just Asian history in general, The Ryukyu Kingdom is worth picking up. Not only does it give a good history of the Ryukyu Kingdom via its relationships with external powers, it also gives the reader an understanding of how interconnected the region has always been and how this “great challenge” of diplomacy is one that is still relevant today.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
When it comes to books on the history of Okinawa, I haven’t been able to find much in English. Most of the books I can see cover the battle of Okinawa, or they talk about Okinawa’s diet or karate traditions. So in this way, The Ryukyu Kingdom fills an important void because who doesn’t want to know more about a place they’ve been to?
Translated from Japanese, The Ryukyu Kingdom paints a picture of a kingdom – well actually three kingdoms – as it maintains its autonomy by submitting to two greater powers in the region: China and Japan. Originally three autonomous regions known as the Sanzan (the “Three Mountains” or “Three Mountain Kingdoms”, the Kingdom of Ryukyu was unified in 1429 with the first Sho dynasty. However even before that, the most powerful of the three factions, Chuzan, had already been recognised as a vassal state of Ming-dynasty China in 1372. Around the time of the 16th century, Ryukyu is conquered by the Satsuma under the Japanese Bakufu and thus it begins a process of sinification in order to keep its identity distinct from Japan.
And thus Mamoru Akamine brings us through the tightrope that the Ryukyu kingdom walked for centuries. This was what the royal Ryukyu court called its “great challenge”, where its existence depended on being able to balance the interests of two outside nations. As Akamine writes:
“Ryukyu’s sense of sovereignty was born from this great challenge diplomacy, which itself stemmed from the dual-identity polity, which held Ryukyu to be a vassal of China and a vassal of Japan. And because any slipup in the execution of this great challenge diplomacy would greatly impact the kingdom’s continued existence, the ruling members of the royal government always imbued the challenge with great meaning.”
Because of this focus, the book doesn’t talk much about the internal politics of the Ryukyu Kingdom. We get a good understanding of how their court worked and what were the various ranks, but I didn’t get any sense of the various factions within the courts or between the three kingdoms in the Ryukyu. In a way, the political emphasis is on the relationships between Ryukyu and other nations rather than within Ryukyu itself. If you’re looking for a book that focuses more on the internal history of the Ryukyu kingdom, this may not be what you’re looking for.
This isn’t to say that the book focuses only on the larger political movements. Akamine goes into detail on the rituals involved in trade and tribute missions, along with very interesting descriptions of how the ships looked and what the various flags were for. I didn’t realise that there would be a centipede flag among all the others because the centipede was said to be able to intimidate malicious sea deities and ensure good weather.
As this is my second time reading the book and because I actually took notes the first time I read this in 2019 (I thought I saw a book review but I can’t find it anymore), I could sort of compare what caught my eye this time round. In general, the things that I would have noted down remain the same but I did realise that the theme of finding an identity by balancing between two cultures resonated a lot more strongly now than it did before. And perhaps also because I’ve also been more interested in hanfu and women’s stories in general, I immediately noticed this passing reference to a woman who sounds like she has a story to tell. In Chapter 1, the book writes that a settlement of traders gathered around a merchant named Wang Sheng [J. O Sho] whose Japanese wife gained notoriety. That’s all it says but the footnotes have a bit more information: In 1511, the widow of Wang Sheng was named in an arrest warrant and rounded up along with many others in a raid on Sung merchants ordered by Dazaifu Deputy governor Muneyori. Some historians believe she was Japanese but not all accounts say so and I am intrigued! What was her name? Why was she singled out? Was she the reason why the traders gathered around Wang Sheng? What was it like to be living in that time period? I want to know but I’m not sure where to start.
Overall, if you’ve got an interest in Okinawan history or just Asian history in general, The Ryukyu Kingdom is worth picking up. Not only does it give a good history of the Ryukyu Kingdom via its relationships with external powers, it also gives the reader an understanding of how interconnected the region has always been and how this “great challenge” of diplomacy is one that is still relevant today.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
May 15, 2019
I had noticed that many of my books on China and Japan made references to what was once an independent nation (now a part of Japan) located on the Ryukyu archipelago of islands located between the southern tip of Japan and the Northern tip of Taiwan. One of my books described how the Ryukyu kingdom - which was a "vassal state" of China - was conquered by Japan in the early 1600s, but that the conquest was kept a secret from China so that Ryukyu could keep its status as a vassal state and continue trading with China. According to that book, Japan was unwilling to be a vassal of China (because it meant recognizing the Emperor of China as a higher authority than Japan's own ruler) which disqualified it from trading with China - however Japan wanted to trade with China, so the solution was to conquer Ryukyu in secret and have it trade with China on Japan's behalf. I decided I wanted to learn more about the Ryukyu kingdom so I bought this book.
While this book fleshed out some of the details that were skimmed over in my other books - such as the details of the elaborate plans put in place to prevent China from finding out about the Ryukyu kingdom's true relationship with Japan, and that China most likely knew the truth of the situation all along but didn't care enough to do anything about it - the story is much the same as what I had read before.
Some of the aforementioned elaborate plans:
...the concealment policy was consistently upheld even when a ship from Satsuma wrecked along the Chinese coast...[now they are talking about an example of a shipwreck] the Ryukyuan pilot who had been hired in Naha ordered the Ryukyuan crew to use cooking knives to shave their heads in the Japanese style and tell the Chinese authorities their names were Kinsaemon and Gosaemon...When the Chinese envoys were in residence, no one was allowed to mention any subject related to Japan, and an order went out forbidding the display of public notices written in Japanese. Japanese language, dates according to the Japanese calendar, Japanese-style names, and Japanese poetry - all were forbidden. Even the use of the common Japanese Kan'ei coins was forbidden...guard stations were set up in three locations in Naha and were charged with watching street traffic, to limit the direct contact with the Chinese visitors...any groups or individuals likely to come into contact with the visitors were given scripted answers to any possible questions they might be asked by the Chinese.
This elaborate ruse went on for over 250 years - from the early 1600s until 1873 - when a newly modernized and suddenly powerful Japan abruptly changed course and claimed that Ryukyu had been a part of Japan all along. The king of Ryukyu was stripped of his power and forced to relocate to Tokyo, and Ryukyo was told it could no longer be a vassal of China. This move was strongly protested - both within Ryukyu itself and in China - but at that point, neither of them were in a position to take on Japan militarily. Before long China and Japan were at war (not over Ryukyu specifically, but Ryukyu was one of many contributing factors), China was beaten badly, and any hope of Ryukyu maintaining its independence was lost. It was incorporated into Japan as a prefecture, which it remains to this day.
While this book fleshed out some of the details that were skimmed over in my other books - such as the details of the elaborate plans put in place to prevent China from finding out about the Ryukyu kingdom's true relationship with Japan, and that China most likely knew the truth of the situation all along but didn't care enough to do anything about it - the story is much the same as what I had read before.
Some of the aforementioned elaborate plans:
...the concealment policy was consistently upheld even when a ship from Satsuma wrecked along the Chinese coast...[now they are talking about an example of a shipwreck] the Ryukyuan pilot who had been hired in Naha ordered the Ryukyuan crew to use cooking knives to shave their heads in the Japanese style and tell the Chinese authorities their names were Kinsaemon and Gosaemon...When the Chinese envoys were in residence, no one was allowed to mention any subject related to Japan, and an order went out forbidding the display of public notices written in Japanese. Japanese language, dates according to the Japanese calendar, Japanese-style names, and Japanese poetry - all were forbidden. Even the use of the common Japanese Kan'ei coins was forbidden...guard stations were set up in three locations in Naha and were charged with watching street traffic, to limit the direct contact with the Chinese visitors...any groups or individuals likely to come into contact with the visitors were given scripted answers to any possible questions they might be asked by the Chinese.
This elaborate ruse went on for over 250 years - from the early 1600s until 1873 - when a newly modernized and suddenly powerful Japan abruptly changed course and claimed that Ryukyu had been a part of Japan all along. The king of Ryukyu was stripped of his power and forced to relocate to Tokyo, and Ryukyo was told it could no longer be a vassal of China. This move was strongly protested - both within Ryukyu itself and in China - but at that point, neither of them were in a position to take on Japan militarily. Before long China and Japan were at war (not over Ryukyu specifically, but Ryukyu was one of many contributing factors), China was beaten badly, and any hope of Ryukyu maintaining its independence was lost. It was incorporated into Japan as a prefecture, which it remains to this day.
May 18, 2025
Solid history of the Ryukyu islands as an independent kingdom (or dual subject to China and Japan). Dry at times, but very detailed description of what the ancient Tribute Mission looked like.
September 23, 2021
Probably one of the best books on the Ryukyu kingdom.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews