Maritime Ryukyu 1050 1650

Why do Ryukyu’s official histories locate the origins of its early dynastic founders in Iheya and Izena, small islands located northwest of Okinawa? Why did the Ming court extend favorable trade terms to Ryukyuan rulers? What was the nature of Okinawa’s enigmatic principalities, Sannan, Chūzan, and Hokuzan? When and how did the Ryukyu islands become united under a single ruler? Was this Ryukyuan state an empire, why did it go to war with the powerful Japanese domain of Satsuma in 1609, and what actually happened during that war? Answers to these and other key questions concerning early Ryukyuan history can be found in this bold reappraisal by a leading authority on the subject. Conventional portrayals of early Ryukyu are based on official histories written between 1650 and 1750. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Gregory Smits makes extensive use of scholarship in archaeology and anthropology and leverages unconventional sources such as the Omoro sōshi (a collection of ancient songs) to present a fundamental rethinking of early Ryukyu. Instead of treating Ryukyu as a natural, self-contained cultural or political community, he examines it as part of a maritime network extending from coastal Korea to the islands of Tsushima and Iki, along the western shore of Kyushu, and through the Ryukyu Arc to coastal China. Smits asserts that Ryukyuan culture did not spring from the soil of Okinawa: He highlights Ryukyu’s northern roots and the role of wakō (pirate-merchant seafarers) in the formation of power centers throughout the islands, uncovering their close historical connections with the coastal areas of western Japan and Korea. Unlike conventional Ryukyuan histories that open with Okinawa, Maritime Ryukyu starts with the northern island of Kikai, an international crossroads during the eleventh century. It also focuses on other important but often overlooked territories such as the Tokara islands and Kumejima, in addition to bringing the northern and southern Ryukyu islands into a story that all too often centers almost exclusively on Okinawa. Readers interested in the history of the Ryukyu islands, premodern Japan, and East Asia, as well as maritime history, will welcome this original and persuasive volume.

Taiwan is a Pacific island – actually several islands: a big one and some smaller satellites – surrounded by warm tropical seas. It is easily accessible, has excellent transportation and is a first-world society with out-going, friendly, laid-back people. Especially in the south and on several of the outlying islands, there is some very good scuba diving and also a network of dive centres and resorts with first-class professional staff and equipment. They provide services for a young generation of Taiwanese, who are driving development in the sport with considerable enthusiasm. Yet, when divers elsewhere in the world think about diving destinations, Taiwan is rarely even a blip on their radar screen. Very few people outside Taiwan have ever thought to enquire about the diving there, and very few people inside Taiwan have ever thought to tell anyone about it. Until now... In Dive into Taiwan, Simon Pridmore unveils the underwater secrets of these islands and guides you around expertly, making sure you travel easily, dine well and appreciate the unique culture and traditions of Taiwan as well as its marine treasures. This is the first English-language guide to diving the reefs and wrecks of hitherto unknown locations such as Penghu, Xiaoliuqiu, Hengchun, Lanyu (Orchid Island), Ludao (Green Island) and Taiwan’s Northeast Coast and places them firmly on the international diving map. Authoritative, well written and beautifully illustrated by Taiwanese photographer Kyo Liu’s superb underwater images, Dive into Taiwan opens the door to a new and exciting destination for travelling divers.

This English translation of a key work by one of Okinawa’s most respected historians, Mamoru Akamine, provides a compelling new picture of the role played by the Ryukyu Kingdom in the history of East Asia. Okinawa Island, from which the present-day Japanese prefecture derives its name, is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, an archipelago that stretches between Japan and Taiwan. In the present volume, Akamine chronicles the rise of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it played a major part in East Asian trade and diplomacy. Then Ryukyu was indeed the cornerstone in a vibrant East Asian trade sphere centered on Ming China, linking what we now call Japan, Korea, and China to Southeast Asia. With historical and cultural connections to both Japan and China, Ryukyu also mediated diplomatically between the two nations, whose leaders more often than not refused to deal with each other directly. But eventually the kingdom became a victim of its own success. Political developments in China and Japan starting in the sixteenth century brought great changes to the region, and in 1609 Ryukyu was invaded by Satsuma, Japan’s southernmost domain. The China-Japan geopolitical rivalry would in time be acted out within Ryukyu itself, as one faction strove to maintain ties with China while another supported union with rapidly modernizing Japan. Throughout the work Akamine’s approach to Ryukyu history is distinguished by his expert use of Chinese and Korean sources, which allows him to examine events from several different angles. This contributes to a broad, sweeping narrative, revealing an East Asia made up of many shifting and interrelated parts—not just nation states pursuing their own interests. Akamine’s facility with Chinese texts in particular uncovers telling details that add considerably to the historical record. His meticulous account of one of Ryukyu’s tribute missions to China, for example, or the role of feng shui in the design of Shuri Castle, the royal and administrative center of the kingdom, is detailed without being pedantic. As a result, readers will come away with a broader, more informed understanding of Ryukyu’s significance in the region and the complexity of its relations with its neighbors.

Shows that the history of the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines is a history in its own right as well as part of Philippine history. Dwells on the demographic, social, and international forces that have shaped that history.

The Ryukyu islands have been inhabited by humans for over 30,000 years. Their modern population, however, did not come from stone-age ancestors, nor did distinctive forms of Ryukyuan culture, such as sacred groves or stone-walled castles, emerge from within the islands. Instead, different groups of people lived in the Ryukyu islands at various points in history. Starting with the earliest extant human remains and ending with the formation of a centralized state in the early 1500s, Early Ryukyuan History traces the people, culture, technologies, goods, and networks that entered different parts of Ryukyu over time. In the process, it synthesizes decades of research in archaeology and anthropology, recent advances in genetic evidence, and conventional documentary sources to advance a new model for the early development of the Ryukyu islands, thoroughly rewriting early Ryukyuan history. Taking a multidisciplinary approach grounded in archaeology, this resource presents an updated framework for understanding early Ryukyu along with a new narrative featuring a fascinating cast of characters. Linked by the ocean into the East China Sea, the early Ryukyu islands were never isolated. People and technologies arrived from across the sea and became the prime movers of early Ryukyuan society. The most consequential of these external agents were waves of immigrants, mainly from the Japanese islands, who settled the Ryukyu islands during the eleventh and twelfth centuries and replaced the islands’ previous Jōmon population. While the physical environment of the Ryukyu islands was not conducive to cereal agriculture, the islands were well situated for trading and raiding, and trade became the driving force behind societal development. In Early Ryukyuan History, Gregory Smits reappraises the most fundamental questions and topics in early Ryukyuan history, providing new models of migration and settlement, regional trade, political geography, warfare, and state formation.

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This book will give you a basic understanding of the origin of Okinawa, its emergence onto the world's stage, and its evolution over the centuries to become the subtropical paradise that we've come to know and love. Having collected so many books and papers about pre-war, wartime and post-war Okinawa, it occurred to me that there is an almost endless array of publications, each offering abundant facts, opinions and uncertainties as to events, dates of events and details of just about every aspect of the principalities, kingdom, province, then finally prefecture of Okinawa-ken including its 27-year interruption under U.S. occupation. There is no way to present a comprehensive volume that covers all aspects of Okinawa's past and present without necessitating the use of a wheelbarrow to move it from one place to the next - it would be that big! This book's content is inspired by and is representative of what I've read and, to a lesser degree what I've researched on the Internet. Some of it is derived from personal experience or observation. If you can't find information on a particular subject, that just means that I haven't experienced it, don't have it in my library or perhaps I do but haven't read it yet.