, also or , was a Ryukyuan lord of

Ishigaki Island , also known as ''Ishigakijima'', is a Japanese island south-west of Okinawa Hontō and the second-largest island of the Yaeyama Island group, behind Iriomote Island. It is located approximately south-west of Okinawa Hontō. It is within the ...

who led a rebellion against the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1500.

Early life and rebellion

It is said that Akahachi was born on

Hateruma Hateruma (波照間島; ''Hateruma-jima''; Yaeyama: ''Patirooma'', Hateruma dialect: ''Besїma'' "our island", Okinawan: ''Hatiruma'', Northern Ryukyuan: ''Patara'') is an island in the Yaeyama District of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is the ...

Island, and that he was large and physically strong even as a child. He moved to

as a young adult, and became the chief of Ōhama Village (today part of Ishigaki City) soon afterward."Oyake Akahachi." ''Okinawa rekishi jinmei jiten'' (沖縄歴史人名事典, "Encyclopedia of People of Okinawan History"). Naha: Okinawa Bunka-sha, 1996. p18. His influence soon extended over all of Ishigaki Island, and beyond, to other islands in the

Yaeyama Islands The Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島 ''Yaeyama-rettō'', also 八重山諸島 ''Yaeyama-shotō'', Yaeyama: ''Yaima'', Yonaguni: ''Daama'', Okinawan: ''Yeema'', Northern Ryukyuan: ''Yapema'') are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa ...

group. At some point late in the 15th century, the nearby

Miyako Islands The (also Miyako Jima group) are a group of islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, belonging to the Ryukyu Islands. They are situated between the Okinawa Island and Yaeyama Islands. In the early 1870s, the population of the islands was estim ...

were divided between two influential families, the Nakasone and Kaneshigawa, who were fighting one another for dominance of the area. Seeking to take advantage of the chaos and disunity, Akahachi proposed an invasion of the Miyako Islands. However,

Nakasone Toyomiya (active c. 1500–1530) was a Ryūkyūan Chieftain and later Anji of the Miyako Islands credited with repelling an invasion from Ishigaki Island, and expanding Miyako political control over some of the Yaeyama Islands. When the Miyako Islands wer ...

led a counterattack against Akahachi, overwhelming his forces and moving on to attack

Yonaguni Island , one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost inhabited island of Japan, lying from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean proper. The island is administered as the town of Yonaguni, Yaeyama Gun, Okinawa ...

as well.Kerr, George. ''Okinawa: the History of an Island People''. (revised ed.) Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2000. p121. At this time, the Ryukyu Kingdom, based at Shuri on

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 ...

, did not yet have direct control over the Yaeyama or Miyako Islands, but merely expected

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...

to be paid. Akahachi led the people of Ishigaki and the surrounding islands in revolt against the kingdom, refusing to pay taxes or tribute. After Nakasone conquered Yaeyama, a force of roughly 3,000 Ryukyuan troops was sent by King

Shō Shin was a king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the third ruler the second Shō dynasty. Shō Shin's long reign has been described as "the Great Days of Chūzan", a period of great peace and relative prosperity. He was the son of Shō En, the founder of the dyn ...

in 1500, and the rebellion was suppressed with the annexation of the Sakishima Islands.

Legacy

While official records and histories produced by the Ryukyu Kingdom label Oyake Akahachi as a rebel and a traitor, locally on Ishigaki and the surrounding islands he is known as a hero who sought to secure their freedom and independence. A

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

in his honor can be found today in the Ōhama area of Ishigaki City.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oyake, Akahachi 1500 deaths Ryukyuan chiefs Japanese rebels Executed Japanese people 15th-century Ryukyuan people 16th-century Ryukyuan people