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Shunbajunki
was a legendary local ruler of Okinawa Island. Shunbajunki was the second ruler of the Shunten dynasty. He succeeded his father Shunten in 1237.Kerr, Shunbajunki's reign is noted for the construction of Shuri Castle and the introduction of the Japanese ''kana'' writing system. The Chinese language and writing system was not to be introduced until roughly a century later; even after that time, government documents continued to be written in ''kana'', as did much poetry. Shunbajunki died in 1248, and was succeeded by his son Gihon Gihon is the name of the second river mentioned in the second chapter of the biblical Book of Genesis. The Gihon is mentioned as one of four rivers (along with the Tigris, Euphrates, and Pishon) issuing out of the Garden of Eden that branched fr .... Notes References * Kerr, George H. (1965). ''Okinawa, the History of an Island People.'' Rutland, Vermont: C.E. Tuttle CoOCLC 39242121*Shinzato, Keiji, et al. ''Okinawa-ken no rekishi'' (History o ...
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Shunten
, also known as , was a legendary ruler of Okinawa Island. Shunten is the earliest chief in Okinawa for whom a name is known. He is said to have taken power after defeating an usurper to the throne by the name of Riyū who had overthrown the 25th king of the Tenson dynasty. Origin The ''Chūzan Seikan'' (1650), the first official history of the Ryūkyūan Kingdom, and ''Chūzan Seifu'' (1701) state that Shunten was the son of ''samurai'' Minamoto no Tametomo (1139–1170). Tametomo was exiled to a penal colony on Izu Ōshima following his defeat in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156. According to the story, Tametomo then became lost at sea some time later, arrived on Okinawa, and settled down with the sister/daughter of the '' anji'', or local chieftain, of Ōzato. Ōzato is located at the south of Okinawa Island in the present-day city of Nanjō. Shunten, according to the two histories, was the son of Tametomo and the sister/daughter of the Ōzato ''anji''. However, these works w ...
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Gihon (Ryukyu)
was a legendary local ruler of Okinawa Island. Gihon was the third and last ruler of the Shunten dynasty. He succeeded his father Shunbajunki at the age of 44, in 1248. Gihon's reign was marked by terrible disasters, including famine, epidemics, and devastating typhoons. Around 1254, he appointed a young lord by the name of Eiso to be Regent (''Sessei''), and to aid in managing these disasters. Gihon felt personally responsible for the disasters and abdicated in 1259 or 1260, and shortly thereafter "withdrew into the forest alone."Kerr, p51. Eiso succeeded him as king and established a new dynasty. The precise location, date, and circumstances of Gihon's death are unknown, though it is safe to assume he died shortly after his abdication. Local legends allege that he was last seen at the cliffs of Hedo Point, the northernmost point on Okinawa Island, and his tomb is located nearby. Notes References * Kerr, George H. (1965). ''Okinawa, the History of an Island People.'' Rutla ...
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Genealogy Of The Kings Of Chūzan
, also known as King of Lew Chew, , or more officially , was a title held by several lineages from Okinawa Island until 1879. It effectively started in 1372 when Satto greeted a Chinese envoy from the newly established Ming dynasty although his son Bunei was the first to be officially recognized as the King of Chūzan. However, the official Okinawan narrative traces the line of succession further back to the legendary ruler Shunten, who supposedly ascended to the throne in 1187. Another peculiar feature of the official Okinawan narrative is the notion of the single line of succession, instead of Chinese-style dynastic changes, even though they clearly recognized that several unrelated lineages had taken over the position. Early forms of the narrative The earliest known form of the narrative dates to the reign of King Shō Shin of the Second Shō dynasty. A stone monument dated 1522 makes reference to "three dynasties of Shunten's, Eiso's and Satto's". His son King Shō Sei exp ...
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Shunten Dynasty
The was the second dynasty in the traditional historiography of Okinawa Island. It was established by Shunten in 1187. According to ''Chūzan Seikan'', Shunten's mother was a daughter of the ''aji'', or local chieftain, of Ōzato; his father, Minamoto no Tametomo, was an adventurer from Japan. Prior to becoming king, Shunten was the lord of Urasoe. At that time, Okinawa Island was in great confusion; the last overlord of Tenson dynasty was assassinated by the powerful official named Riyū (利勇), whom promoted himself as paramount chief. Shunten revolted against Riyū and overthrew him. In 1187, Shunten was recognized as the new "king". overlord among ''aji''.''Chūzan Seikan'', vol. 1 Though commonly called the "kings", the Okinawan rulers at that time should be more accurately identified as paramount chiefs, or overlords among ''aji'' during the . George H. Kerr suggested that the stories of Shunten and Eiso dynasties "reflect the increasing penetration of Japanese influen ...
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Okinawan Name
Okinawan names ( Okinawan: /, ''nā'') today have only two components, the family names (surnames or last names) first and the given names last. Okinawan family names represent the distinct historical and cultural background of the islands which now comprise Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Expatriates originally from Okinawa also have these names. Modern names As Japanese citizens, Okinawans today comply with the Japanese family register (''koseki'') system. Accordingly, an Okinawan name has only two components, a family name and a given name. A family name is called ''myōji'' (苗字 or 名字), ''uji'' (氏) or ''sei'' (姓), and a given name is called the "front name" (名前, ''namae'') or "lower name" (下の名前, ''shita no namae''). The family name precedes the given name. The given name may be referred to as the "lower name" because, in vertically-written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name. Japanese family names generally show regional variation, but ...
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Okinawa Island
is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five main islands of Japan. The island is approximately long, an average wide, and has an area of . It is roughly south of the main island of Kyushu and the rest of Japan. It is north of Taiwan. The total population of Okinawa Island is 1,384,762. The Greater Naha area has roughly 800,000 residents, while the city itself has about 320,000 people. Naha is the seat of Okinawa Prefecture on the southwestern part of Okinawa Island. Okinawa has a humid subtropical climate. Okinawa has been a critical strategic location for the United States Armed Forces since the Battle of Okinawa and the end of World War II. The island was under American administration until 1972, and today hosts around 26,000 US military personnel, about half of the total complement of the United States Forces Japan, spread among 32 bases and 48 training sites ...
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Shuri Castle
was a Ryukyuan ''gusuku'' castle in Shuri, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Between 1429 and 1879, it was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, before becoming largely neglected. In 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was almost completely destroyed. After the war, the castle was re-purposed as a university campus. Beginning in 1992, the central citadel and walls were largely reconstructed on the original site based on historical records, photographs, and memory. In 2000, Shuri Castle was designated as a World Heritage Site, as a part of the Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu. On the morning of 31 October 2019, the main courtyard structures of the castle were again destroyed in a fire. History The date of construction is uncertain, but it was clearly in use as a castle during the Sanzan period (1322–1429). It is thought that it was probably built during the Gusuku period, like many other castles of Okinawa. When King Shō Hashi unified the three princi ...
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Kana
The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most prominent magana system being ; the two descendants of man'yōgana, (2) , and (3) . There are also , which are historical variants of the now-standard hiragana. In current usage, 'kana' can simply mean ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. Katakana, with a few additions, are also used to write Ainu. A number of systems exist to write the Ryūkyūan languages, in particular Okinawan, in hiragana. Taiwanese kana were used in Taiwanese Hokkien as glosses (ruby text or ''furigana'') for Chinese characters in Taiwan when it was under Japanese rule. Each kana character (syllabogram) corresponds to one sound or whole syllable in the Japanese language, unlike kanji regular script, which corresponds to a meaning (logogram). Apart from the five vowels, ...
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Chinese Language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the world's population) speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be variants of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered separate languages in a family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin (with about 800 million speakers, or 66%), followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shangh ...
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Written Chinese
Written Chinese () comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language. Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly Logogram, logosyllabic; that is, a character generally represents one syllable of spoken Chinese and may be a word on its own or a part of a polysyllabic word. The characters themselves are often composed of parts that may represent physical objects, abstract notions, or pronunciation. Literacy requires the memorization of a great number of characters: college-educated Chinese speakers know about 4,000. The large number of Chinese characters has in part led to the adoption of Western alphabets or other complementary systems as auxiliary means of representing Chinese. Various current Chinese characters have been traced back to the late Shang Dynasty about 1200–1050 BC,William G. Boltz, Early Chinese Writing, World Archaeology, Vol. 17, No. 3, Early Writing Systems. (Feb., 1986), pp. 42 ...
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George H
George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States * George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States * George V, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1910-1936 * George VI, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1936-1952 * Prince George of Wales * George Papagheorghe also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George Harrison, an English musician and singer-songwriter Places South Africa * George, Western Cape ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa * George, Missouri * George, Washington * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Characters * George (Peppa Pig), a 2-year-old ...
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Eiso (Ryukyu)
was a semi-legendary ruler of Okinawa Island. He was the founding monarch of the Eiso dynasty. The name Eiso superficially looks like a temple name but the scholarly consensus is that it represents Iso (伊祖), a settlement in modern-day Urasoe, Okinawa. ''Wezo no ikusamoi'' (good commander of Iso), who appears in the archaic poem collection ''Omoro Sōshi'', is usually identified as Eiso. Life According to Sai Taku's edition of the ''Chūzan Seifu'' (1701), Eiso was born as son of Eso Yononushi (恵祖世主), a descendant of the Tenson dynasty, who is said to have descended from the goddess of creation. The ''Chūzan Seikan'' (1650) is inconsistent about their relationship. The section of Gihon treats Eiso as the son of Eso Yononushi while the section of Eiso states that he was Eso Yononushi's grandson. The ''Chūzan Seikan'' claims that his mother gave birth after she dreamed of the Supreme Deity. The ''Chūzan Seifu'' is more explicit about the miraculous birth and is charact ...
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