The chiefs of the Ryukyu islands

Who rules

Name

not known; no ruler's name is attested for 1200

Title

Local chieftains (later called aji)

Confidence

low

The Chūzan seikan (compiled 1650) gives a king Shunten at Urasoe from 1187 to 1237 and makes Minamoto no Tametomo his father. English Wikipedia (Shunten) records that no historical evidence supports Shunten and that he is almost certainly fictional. We give no king as fact.

Overlord

none known; the Amami islands are claimed from Satsuma and the Dazaifu in the writings of the court (1188), without effect

What the realm holds

• Okinawa Island with the Kerama, Kume, Iheya and Izena islands
• The Amami group (Amami Ōshima, Kikai, Tokunoshima, Okinoerabu, Yoron) as a trading frontier, nominally claimed from Satsuma
• Miyako and the Yaeyama islands, whose peoples are not tied to Okinawa until 1500

How it was acquired

Allies and rivals

Trade ties to Kyūshū (Hakata merchants through Kikai) and to Fujian; no recorded wars. The Heike refugee and Tametomo stories are late legends.

The realm that morning

Unwritten ground. The nearest dated events are the Japanese notices of 1187 and 1188: Ata Tadakage fled to Kikai and Yoritomo sent men to pacify it, and the court objected that it lay 'beyond Japan's administration' (English Wikipedia, Kikai Island). No war is in force.

Wealth

Attested by archaeology: imported Chinese ceramics, Kamuiyaki stoneware, Kyūshū soapstone vessels and iron. What the islands exported is not known; shell goods and sulphur are named in later sources.

Military

Not known; the enclosures of the gusuku are chiefs' strongholds, not royal fortresses.

Threats

• Kyūshū traders and the Satsuma lords reaching south by way of Kikai
• Feuds between local chiefs, known only from later tradition

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1270 to 1300 (late 13th century and after)Stone walls begin at Urasoe (late 13th century), at Katsuren (13th to early 14th) and Nakijin (early 14th)Depends on: Archaeology as reported in English Wikipedia (Urasoe, Katsuren, Nakijin) Stopped by: n/a
2. 1260Eiso, the earliest king with any support, begins his reign (tradition, Chūzan seikan)Depends on: Tradition Stopped by: n/a

Places of note

• Urasoe: Chūzan tradition's seat; stone walls late 13th century
• Katsuren: Hilltop site; stone castle 13th to 14th century
• Nakijin: Hokuzan tradition; earliest evidence 12th to 13th century by one reading

Where the sources disagree

• The brief and the Chūzan seikan agree on Shunten 1187 to 1237; English Wikipedia treats him as legend. No king appears in the records below.

Evidence: Archaeology and a handful of Japanese notices only; the chronicles are of 1650 and later. The English Wikipedia pages on Urasoe, Katsuren, Nakijin, Gusuku, Kikai Island and Shunten are the checked sources.

On the map: Island blocks are the modern municipality units; chiefs' districts (later magiri) are not drawn because none is attested for 1200.

Primary sources for this realm

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