The Ryukyu Kingdom

Abstract

This English translation of an Okinawan scholarly voice provides a compelling new picture of the role played by the Ryukyu Kingdom in pre-modern East Asia. Mamoru Akamine first examines the early history of the Ryukyu Islands, then goes on to detail the vital role the Ryukyu Kingdom played in a vibrant East Asian trade sphere, which centered on Ming China, and connected what we now call Japan, Korea, and China with Southeast Asia. Despite the successful 1609 invasion of Ryukyu by Japan’s Satsuma domain, the kingdom was able to maintain quasi-independence for two and a half more centuries by skillfully mediating between Japan and China, who rarely dealt directly with each other. The narrative draws to a close as Akamine describes the steps leading to Ryukyu’s eventual annexation by Japan in 1879 as Okinawa Prefecture. What distinguishes this book is Akamine’s deployment of Chinese and Korean sources, depicting an East Asia made up of many moving parts, not just nation states pursuing their own interests. Yet these same sources allow him to zoom in on the small, telling particulars that make up that big picture. The reader can understand as never before the complexity of Ryukyu’s relations with its neighbors.