Home / Dual Loyalty and the Ryukyu Disposition
03 — TURNING POINT
A Kingdom of Dual Subordination, and the Ryukyu Disposition
The Ryukyu Kingdom was recognised as a kingdom by the Chinese emperor while also submitting to Satsuma in Japan. This state of "dual subordination" lasted more than 260 years and came to an end in the early Meiji period. One of the triggers was an incident that took place in Taiwan.
Labels: Factdocumented Likelysupported by most sources Legendoral tradition Urban legendlocal lore and rumour
1609: the Satsuma invasion
FactIn 1609, with the permission of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Shimazu clan of Satsuma invaded Ryukyu with about 3,000 soldiers. The kingdom was defeated by the battle-hardened Satsuma army, and King Sho Nei was taken to Kagoshima; he was then made to meet Ieyasu at Sunpu and the shogun Hidetada in Edo.
FactAs a result, the Amami Islands became territory directly ruled by Satsuma, and Ryukyu had to pay annual tribute to Satsuma. Even so, the kingdom was not abolished, and its tribute missions to China continued. For Satsuma, trade with China through Ryukyu was highly profitable.
Living with "dual subordination"
FactRyukyu was thus placed in a double position: a kingdom invested by China (the Ming, and later the Qing), yet in practice ruled by Satsuma. This is called dual subordination. It is said that while the Chinese investiture envoys were in Ryukyu, Satsuma officials kept out of sight, taking care not to let China see the kingdom's ties with Japan.
FactConversely, on the Edo nobori — missions by Ryukyuan envoys to Edo on occasions such as the succession of a new shogun — the envoys were instructed by Satsuma to wear Chinese-style dress and to process while playing Chinese-style music. The aim was to show that Satsuma "held a foreign kingdom in its service." The Edo nobori took place 18 times between 1634 and 1850.
An incident in Taiwan
FactIn 1871, a ship from Miyako Island, returning from delivering tax to Shuri, was caught in a storm and drifted ashore in southeastern Taiwan, around what is now Manzhou Township in Pingtung County. Of the 69 people on board, 3 drowned, and of the 66 who came ashore, 54 were killed in a local Indigenous village. The 12 survivors were rescued by Han Chinese residents and returned to Ryukyu via Fuzhou. This is known as the 1871 Miyako shipwreck incident.
FactThe Meiji government treated the incident as one in which "Japanese nationals were killed," and in 1874 it sent troops to Taiwan under Saigo Tsugumichi (the Taiwan Expedition, known in Taiwan as the Mudan Incident). After negotiations, the Qing recognised Japan's expedition as "a righteous act to protect its people" and agreed to pay compensation.
This settlement bolstered Japan's claim that the people of Ryukyu were Japanese nationals. The shipwreck of the Miyako sailors had shifted the fate of the kingdom.
Look here: graves in Taiwan and Naha
The remains of the 54 who died were buried in Checheng Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan, where a grave inscribed "Tomb of Fifty-Four Subjects of the Ryukyu Domain of Great Japan" still stands. At Gokokuji Temple, beside Naminoue Shrine in Naha, there is also a memorial stone mourning them.
1879: the end of the kingdom
FactIn 1872, the Meiji government made the Ryukyu Kingdom the Ryukyu Domain, with King Sho Tai as its domain king. In 1875 it ordered Ryukyu to stop sending tribute to the Qing, but the Ryukyuan side, wishing to maintain its relationship with China, was slow to comply.
FactIn March 1879, the government sent Matsuda Michiyuki, the official charged with the "disposition," to Shuri with police and soldiers, and ordered the surrender of Shuri Castle. In April, the establishment of Okinawa Prefecture was proclaimed, and Sho Tai was moved to Tokyo. This series of events is called the Ryukyu Disposition (annexation).
FactSome members of the kingdom's aristocracy crossed to Qing China to seek help (the dasshinnin, "those who fled to the Qing"). One of them, Rin Seiko, took his own life in protest in Beijing in 1880.
The little-known "island partition plan"
In 1880, Japan and the Qing held talks over Ryukyu. Japan proposed handing Miyako and Yaeyama over to the Qing in exchange for trading rights in China (the island partition and treaty revision plan). The negotiations were nearly concluded, but the Qing held off on signing, and the plan never came to pass. Had it been signed, Miyako and Yaeyama might have followed an entirely different history.
Main sources: Okinawa Prefectural Archives / History of Miyakojima City / Naha City Museum of History / Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy