Aji An ''aji'', or ''anji'' was a ruler of a small kingdom in the history of the Ryukyu Islands. The word later became a title and rank of

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

in the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

. It ranked next below a

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

among nobility. The sons of princes and the eldest sons of ''aji'' became ''aji.'' An ''aji'' established a noble family equivalent to a

shinnōke was the collective name for the four cadet branches of the Imperial House of Japan, which were until 1947 entitled to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum Throne if the main line failed to produce an heir. The heads of these royal house ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The ''aji'' arose around the twelfth century as local leaders began to build ''

gusuku often refers to castles or fortresses in the Ryukyu Islands that feature stone walls. However, the origin and essence of ''gusuku'' remain controversial. In the archaeology of Okinawa Prefecture, the ''Gusuku period'' refers to an archaeological ...

'' (Ryukyuan castles). Shō Hashi was an ''aji'' who later unified

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

as king. The title ''aji'' variously designated sons of the king and regional leaders. During the Second Shō Dynasty, when the ''aji'' settled near Shuri Castle, the word came to denote an aristocrat in the castle town. A pattern for addressing a male ''aji'' began with the place he ruled and ended with the word ''aji'', for example, "Nago ''Aji''". For women, the suffix ''ganashi'' or ''kanashi'' (加那志) followed: "Nago ''Aji-ganashi''".

Etymology

The kanji used to spell this word, "按司", appears to be

phono-semantic matching Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with phonetically and semantically similar words or roots f ...

, consisting of the words "keep under control" + "official". The Liuqiu Guan Yiyu (琉球館訳語), a Okinawan word list written in Chinese, states that "大唐大人　大刀那安只" (" heTang nobility re called''*taj.taw.na.an.tʂr̩''"), while the Zhongsang Zhuanxinlu (中山伝信録) says "老爺安主" (" lord s called''an.tʂy''").Hokama (1995:25)

Konkōkenshū is the first dictionary of the Okinawan language and the first of any Ryukyuan language. The dictionary was compiled by a group of seven people under the order of King Shō Tei, dated no later than 1711. ''Konkōkenshū'' contains many archaic w ...

, a Okinawan word list written in Japanese, says "某のあんしきやなし　御太子御妃井御子様方御嫁部の御事" ("Some ''anjikyanashi'' re thegreat nobility of crown princes, the well of the imperical concubine, the ways of the great child, and parts of the great bride"). Various Old and Middle Okinawan anthologies variously spell it as あし, あじ, あち, あぢ, あんし, あんじ, and 按司. Examples of the word in Ryukyuan dialects include Amami Yamatohama , Okinawan Nakijin-Yonamine , Okinawan Shuri , Miyako Irabu-Nakachi .Tomihama (2013:18) Various etymologies have been proposed for this word. For instance,

Iha Fuyu Iha may refer to: *James Iha, American rock musician *Iha Fuyu, Japanese scholar *Iha language, a Papuan language spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula *Iha language (Maluku) or Saparua language, an Austronesian language spoken in the Mulukus *Iha Castl ...

had suggested that this word has been derived from the Japanese word ''aruji'' "master".

List of Aji to 1873

*Oroku Aji (Oroku Udun) *Yuntanza Aji (Yuntanza Udun) *Yoshimura Aji (Yoshimura Udun) *Yonagusuku Aji (Yonagusuku Udun) *Tomigusuku Aji (Tomigusuku Udun) *Osato Aji (Osato Udun) *Urasoe Aji (Urasoe Udun) *Tamagawa Aji (Tamagawa Udun) *Kunigami Aji (Kunigami Udun) *Omura Aji (Omura Udun) *Motobu Aji (Motobu Udun) *Misato Aji (Misato Udun) *Haneji Aji (Haneji Udun) *Nago Aji (Nago Udun) *Kin Aji (Kin Udun) *Uchima Aji (Uchima Udun) *Mabuni Aji (Mabuni Udun) *Nakazato Aji (Nakazato Udun) *Goeku Aji (Goeku Udun) *Ogimi Aji (Ogimi Udun) *Gushikami Aji (Gushikami Udun) *Mabuni Aji (Mabuni Udun) *Tamashiro Aji (Tamashiro Udun) *Gushikawa Aji (Gushikawa Udun) *Takamine Aji (Takamine Udun) *Kushi Aji (Kushi Udun) *Katsuren Aji (Katsuren Udun)

References

Works cited

*Higashionna, Kanjun. (1957). ''Ryukyu no rekishi'', Tokyo: Shibundo. *Higashionna, Kanjun. (1964). ''Nanto fudoki'', Tokyo: Okinawa Bunka Kyokai Okinawa Zaidan. * * * * * * Noble titles Military engineers {{Asia-royal-stub

Etymology

List of Aji to 1873

See also

References

Works cited