Shō Nei
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Shō Nei (尚寧, 1564–1620) was king of the
Shō Nei was the great-grandson of Shō Shin (r. 1477–1526) and the adopted son-in-law of Shō Ei (r. 1573–1586).
Biography
Early in Shō Nei's reign, Japanese warlord
Following Hideyoshi's death in 1598, and Tokugawa Ieyasu's subsequent rise to power, Shō Nei was asked by Satsuma to formally submit to the new shogunate, a request which was also ignored.
Satsuma
This marked the first time the ruler of a foreign country had come to Japan,[4] and Shimazu Tadatsune, the lord of Satsuma, made sure to take advantage of the political value of the occasion for himself. His successors would continue to make use of their status as the only daimyō to have a foreign king as a vassal to secure for themselves greater political privileges, stipends, and court ranking. In 1611, two years after the invasion, the king returned to his castle at Shuri once Tadatsune and his advisors were satisfied that he would uphold the oaths he had sworn.
Though Satsuma initially exercised a strong hand in declaring policy in Ryukyu, and purging the royal government of those perceived as disloyal to Satsuma, by 1616 this approach came to an end.[3] "Japanization" measures were reversed, at the request of Satsuma, and Shō Nei was once more formally granted primacy over his kingdom. For the remainder of his reign, Shō Nei would continue to bear all the trappings of royal authority, and exercised great power over his domain within the frameworks set by Satsuma.
Upon his death, Shō Nei was buried not in the royal mausoleum at Shuri, but rather at Urasoe Castle. Popular belief says this is because he felt that by succumbing to Satsuma's invasion, he had deeply dishonored himself before his ancestors, and was unfit to be buried with them. However, Shō Nei was originally from Urasoe, so a more mundane explanation may be the truer one.
The Oaths Sworn
Shō Nei was forced to swear a number of oaths during his time in Kagoshima,[5] as he and his kingdom were formally made vassals to the Shimazu clan. The so-called Fifteen Injunctions (掟十五ヶ条, Okite jūgo-ka-jō) were among the most major, and primarily involved political and diplomatic matters. These stated, among other stipulations, that Ryukyu would not engage in trade or diplomatic relations with foreign states without the consent of Satsuma. These policies, along with maritime restrictions and other stipulations, would govern Ryukyu's domestic situation and foreign relations for over 250 years.
Shō Nei and the members of his Council of Three were also required to swear that the kingdom had long been a dependency of Satsuma (a falsehood), and that they acknowledged that their failure in recent years to live up to their obligations to Satsuma had brought this invasion, a punitive measure, upon themselves. The oath went on to acknowledge the benevolence of Satsuma in allowing the king and his councillors to return to their kingdom, and to continue to rule. Shō Nei swore to pass on these oaths to his descendants, further ensuring the relative permanence of the vassal-lord relationship into which Ryukyu had been entered with Satsuma.[6]
See also
Notes
- ^ 琉球国王の神号と『おもろさうし』 (PDF) (in Japanese).
- ^ Kerr, George H. (2000). Okinawa: The History of an Island People. (revised ed.) Boston: Tuttle Publishing. p153.
- ^ a b c Smits, Gregory (1999). Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. pp15–19.
- ^ Kerr. p160.
- ^ The Fifteen Injunctions, and the King's Oath, can be found in translation in Kerr. pp160–163.
- ^ Matsuda, Mitsugu (2001). The Government of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, 1609–1872. Gushikawa, Okinawa: Yui Publishing Co. pp26–7.
References
- Kerr, George H. (1965). Okinawa, the History of an Island People. Rutland, Vermont: C. E. Tuttle Co. OCLC 39242121
- ISBN 9780824824938; OCLC 170955369