On the northern Motobu peninsula the earliest hill-fort of the island group may have stood: a chief's residence at Nakijin 'probably existed earlier' than the stone castle, and the nearby Shiina castle is dated to the 13th century and abandoned soon after (English Wikipedia).
The Hokuzan kingdom is a 14th-century tradition; the first documentary mention is in the Ming annals. On 1 January 1200 this is an upland of chiefs whose strength is farmland and the coast; the great trade in Chinese and South-East Asian wares that the later Hokuzan story rests on is a matter of the 14th and 15th centuries (recollection, not checked). Ground for the Hokuzan story, not for a kingdom.
Who he is
- Name
- not known for 1200; the tradition names Daishun, a supposed brother of Shunten, which is legend
- Title
- Local chiefs
- Family
- The Chūzan seikan and Chūzan seifu give a Hokuzan line after Shunten's supposed brother; the pre-Hanishi era is known only from late genealogies (English Wikipedia, Nakijin Castle)
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Nakijin Castle): the text says physical evidence dates the ruins to the 12th or 13th century while the infobox gives the early 14th; Shiina Castle nearby is 13th century.
What it holds
- The Nakijin ridge
- The Shiina hill-fort
How things stand that morning
Chiefly settlements; no king.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: English Wikipedia (Nakijin Castle); contradictory dates (12th-13th by the text, early 14th by the infobox).
Primary sources for Ryukyu
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- Nakijin Castle, English Wikipedia
- Gusuku, English Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.