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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
On August 28, 2009 the Okinawa Association of America marked its 100th anniversary by hosting the musical King Sho Hashi–Dynamic Ryukyu at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles. The poster promoting the event characterizes it as “an ultra modern kumiodori musical in Japanese and English,” and the main visual image of the poster features a young man wielding a sword. The sword is not poised for violence. Instead it is held backwards, blade against the forearm, as a dance prop. The following passage from an article describing the musical quotes from its producer: “Discussing his purpose in creating the work, producer and stage director Daiichi Hirata said, ‘For Okinawans, King Sho Hashi was the first historical figure to have a truly positive impact on the country. I want to take that passionate Okinawan tradition and convey it to future generations using King Sho Hashi as the motif’.” The promotional poster for the musical says of Shō Hashi that “His vision united a kingdom.”
1 Link (as of 11-5-09).
2 Keiko Uchida, “How the Musical ‘King Sho Hashi’ United the Power of the Okinawan People,” Matthew Galgani, trans (9-14-2009), here (as of 11-5-09).
3 Link (as of 11-5-09).
4 Maeda Giken, Okinawa, yogawari no shisō: hito to gakumon no keifu (Naha, Japan: Dai'ichi kyōiku tosho, 1972), pp. 64-67.
5 One characteristic of the Chūzan Seikan is that it minimizes the coercive and military aspects of Ryukyu's connections with Satsuma, instead characterizing them in terms of moral relationships. Moreover, it has very little to say about the events of 1609 compared with other major events in Ryukyuan history.
6 Yokoyama Shigeru, Iha Fuken (Fuyū), and Higashionna Kanjun, eds., Ryūkyū shiryō sōsho, vol. 5 (Hōbun shokan, 1940, 1988), p. 37.
7 Yokoyama, Ryūkyū shiryō sōsho, vol. 5, p. 39.
8 Yokoyama, Ryūkyū shiryō sōsho, vol. 5, p. 40.
9 Yokoyama, Ryūkyū shiryō sōsho, vol. 5, p. 12. For a thorough account the Ryukyu-Satsuma war, see Stephen Turnbull, The Samurai Capture a King: Okinawa 1609 (New York: Osprey Publishing, 2009). Despite being written for non-specialists, this book is based on a close reading of the relevant primary sources.
10 For more details, see Gregory Smits, Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999), pp. 15-49.
11 Gavan McCormack, “Okinawa's Turbulent 400 Years” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 3-3-09, January 12, 2009.
12 Turnbull, The Samurai Capture a King, p. 55. The Ryukyuan military was an early adopter of firearms, possessing them prior to 1450. By 1609, however, Ryukyuan firearms, which were of Chinese design, were inferior to the European-style guns of the invaders.
13 Turnbull, The Samurai Capture a King, p. 45.
14 McCormack, “Okinawa's Turbulent 400 Years.”
15 Ōta Masahide, “Okinawa Calls for a Just Peace: Speech to the U.S. Congressional Study Group on Japan,” (as of 3-20-2006).
16 William P. Lebra, Okinawan Religion: Belief, Ritual, and Social Structure (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1966, 1985), p. 13. Lebra's Japanese translator, the late Mitsugu Sakihara, himself an Okinawan conscript in Battle of Okinawa, found this passage so contrary to everything he had observed, that he convinced Lebra to have it omitted in the Japanese version of the book (personal communication).
17 See the chapter “The War Comes Home to Okinawa” in Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History (New York: The New Press, 1992), pp. 354-372. See also Ōta Masahide, “Re-Examining the History of the Battle of Okinawa,” in Chalmers Johnson, ed., Okinawa: Cold War Island (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), esp. p. 29; Norma Field, In the Realm of a Dying Emperor: Japan at Century's End (New York, Vintage, 1993), esp. pp. 33-106; Steve Rabson, “Case Dismissed: Osaka Court Upholds Novelist Oe Kenzaburo for Writing that the Japanese Military Ordered ‘Group Suicides’ in the Battle of Okinawa” The Asia-Pacific Journal, April 8, 2008; Steve Rabson, “Okinawan Perspectives on Japan's Imperial Institution,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, February 16, 2008; Kawabata Shunichi, Kitazawa Yuki, and Matthew Allen, “A Story That Won't Fade Away: Compulsory Mass Suicide in the Battle of Okinawa” International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, May 15, 2007, posted at Japan Focus on July 12, 2007.
18 George Feifer, “The Rape of Okinawa,” World Policy Journal, 17:3 (Fall, 2000), pp. 35-36.
19 For a scholarly analysis of the significance of the 1995 rape, see Linda Isako Angst, “The Sacrifice of a Schoolgirl: The 1995 Rape Case, Discourses of Power, and Women's Lives in Okinawa,” Critical Asian Studies, vol. 33, no. 2 (2001).
20 Ishigami Eiichi, “Ryūkyū no Amami shotō tōchi no ahodankai,” Rekishi hyōron, No. 603 (2000), pp. 5-9; and Uezato Takashi, “Ryūkyū no kaki ni tsuite,” Okinawa bunka, vol. 36, no. 91 (2000), p. 76. The Korean source on which these authors rely is the Joseon Wangjo Sillok. See also Entry #115. Kyūyō kenkyūkai, eds., Kyūyō (Yomikudashi edition) (Kadokawa shoten, 1974), p. 11.
21 Ishigami, “Amami,” pp. 3-4, 9; and Uezato Takashi, “Ko-Ryūkyū no guntai to sono rekishiteki tenkai,” Ryūkyū Ajia shakai bunka kenkyūkai kiyō, no. 5 (October, 2002), pp. 113-114.
22 Uezato,“Guntai,” p. 114 and entry #202 and #227. Kyūyō kenkyūkai, Kyūyō, p. 14. Regardless of the details, it seems clear that Amami-Ōshima resented Shuri's control and often resisted with violence.
23 Uezato, “Ryūkyū no kaki,” pp. 76-78.
24 Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 108-109.
25 Perhaps the most prominent example of this narrative is Nagamine Shoshin, “Okinawan Karate and World Peace,” found at many web sites such as this (as of 11-7-2009). Although rare, some martial arts writers acknowledge a more realistic interpretation of Shō Shin's actions. For example: “Although it is documented that King Shoshin ordered his provincial lords, or aji, to live near his castle in Shuri, many historians no longer believe that he totally disarmed his ruling class. Although a famous stone monument, the Momo Urasoe Ran Kan No Mei, which is inscribed with the highlights of King Shoshin's reign, tells of the King seizing the aji's swords and how he amassed a supply of weapons in a warehouse near Shuri castle, some Okinawan historians believe that King Shoshin was actually building an armory to protect his ports and prepare for any potential invasion by wako, or pirates, not that he was stripping the Okinawan samurai or the general population of their weaponry” (found here as of 3-21-2006).
26 These events are well documented in any general history of Okinawa. Uezato explains their significance in the context of military affairs with great clarity. See “Guntai,” pp. 110-112.
27 For a detailed analysis of the hiki, see Takara Kurayoshi, Ryūkyū ōkoku no kōzō (Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1987), pp. 103-119. See also Uezato, “Guntai,” p. 112, 118-119.
28 Uezato, “Guntai,” p. 113; and Uezato “Ryūkyū no kaki,” p. 78.
29 Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 117-119; and Uezato “Ryūkyū no kaki,” pp. 82-87.
30 Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 120-121; and Uezato, “Ryūkyū no kaki,” p. 84.
31 Uezato, “Guntai,” p. 124; and Uezato, “Ryūkyū no kaki,” pp. 82-83.
32 Uezato, “Guntai,” p. 123.
33 Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 115-116, 121-124; Uezato, “Ryūkyū no kaki,” pp. 82-88; and Turnbull, The Samurai Capture a King.
34 Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 115-116; and Uezato, “Ryūkyū no kaki,” pp. 82-88.
35 For example, in 1670 pirates connected with Ming loyalist forces captured a Ryukyuan ship, and Satsuma criticized the Ryukyuans as “cowards in the extreme.” See, Tomiyama Kazuyuki, Ryūkyū ōkoku no gaikō to ōken (Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2004), p. 80.
36 Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 116-117.
37 Entry #464. Kyūyō kenkyūkai, Kyūyō, p. 211.
38 Entry #1465. Kyūyō kenkyūkai, Kyūyō, pp. 439-440.
39 Entry #1487. Kyūyō kenkyūkai, Kyūyō, pp. 445-447.
40 Tomiyama, Ryūkyū ōkoku no gaikō to ōken, pp. 176-7.
41 Satsuma maintained only a small direct presence in Ryukyu precisely because Ryukyu's relationship with China was crucial both for Satsuma and Ryukyu. With Satsuma support, Ryukyu devoted considerable resources to maintaining a good image vis-à-vis Chinese officials.
42 Li Dingyuan, Shi Ryūkyū ki, Harada Nobuo, trans., ed. (Gensōsha, 1985), pp. 335-337.
43 Li, Shi Ryūkyū ki, pp. 407-408. See also Kakazu Takeshi, “Rikuyu engi: Tei Junsoku ga fukkokushi fukyuu” Ryūkyū shinpō, 4-24-1993 (#17 in the series Ryūkyū kanshi no tabi).
44 George H. Kerr, Okinawa: The History of an Island People (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1958), pp. 250-251.
45 Kerr, Okinawa, p. 255. For extensive excerpts from the crew members of these two ships, see pp. 249-260.
46 There are many accounts of Ryukyuan judicial proceedings and law codes. One excellent source is Okinawa no hankachō, which details criminal cases before the Hirajo in the 1860s and 70s. One case, for example, involves the investigation into the actions of police officials who tortured a suspect excessively, thus causing his death. See Higa Shunchō and Sakihama Shūmei, eds., trans., Okinawa no hankachō (Tōyō bunko 41) (Heibonsha, 1965), pp. 85-94. See also “Satsuma-han shihaika no saibanken,” Chapter 3 of Tomiyama, Ryūkyū ōkoku no gaikō to ōken, pp. 170-197.
47 Kerr, Okinawa, p. 259.
48 Basil Hall Chamberlain, “The Luchu Islands and Their Inhabitants: I. Introductory Remarks,” The Geographical Journal, vol. 5, no. 4 (April, 1895), pp. 310-311.
49 Chamberlain, “The Luchu Islands,” pp. 318-319.
50 Iha Fuyū, “Ko-Ryūkyū no bubi o kōsatsushite “karate “no hattatsu ni oyobu.” Hattori Shirō, Nakasone Masayoshi, Hokama Shuzen, eds., Iha Fuyū zenshū, vol 5 (Heibonsha, 1974), pp. 196-215 (originally published 1932); and “Ko-Ryūkyū no “hiki seido “ni tsuite—Ryūkyū bunka no ranjukuki ni kansuru ichi kōsatsu,” Zenshū, vol. 9, pp. 279-322 (originally published 1935). See also Uezato, “Guntai,” p. 105.
51 Uezato, “Guntai,” p. 105; and Iha Fuyū, “Ko-Ryūkyū no seiji,” Zenshū, Vol. 1, pp. 419-495, esp. pp. 431-440.
52 For a concise summary of these arguments and a listing of the key essays, see Uezato, “Guntai,” pp. 105-106. In English the most comprehensive work is Turnbull, The Samurai Capture a King.
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