were institutions serving as homes and bases of operations for Ryukyuan missions in early modern

Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute ...

(

Fujian province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

) and

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

(

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, l ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Fuzhou

The Chinese ''Ryūkyū-kan'' (''Liúqiú guǎn'' in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

'') is located in the city of

. Along with the nearby ''Kaido-kan'' () and ''Kokushi-kan'' (), it housed visiting dignitaries and scholars en route between

Ryukyu The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonagu ...

and the Chinese capital of

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. In addition to officials sent by the kingdom to engage in formal diplomatic matters, Ryukyu regularly sent a small number of students to study a variety of traditional Chinese subjects in the capital, primarily in preparation for careers in the kingdom's government and bureaucracy.

Kagoshima

The ''Ryūkyū-kan'' in Kagoshima was located below the castle, on the site occupied today by Nagata Middle School and governmental food provisions offices. It played a central role in relations between the Ryukyu Kingdom and the '' han'' (feudal domain) to which it was a vassal after 1609, serving a function not unlike a modern-day

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

. Visiting dignitaries lived and worked in the ''Ryūkyū-kan'', as did students studying classic subjects in preparation for careers in the kingdom's bureaucracy, and a number of Ryukyuan permanent residents of the city. Satsuma's control over the Ryukyuan officials was tight, however; wandering or loitering in the area around the building was forbidden, and guards posted at the entrance checked visitors in and out.Sakai. p401. Ryukyuans could travel around the city, and to other parts of the country, only on official business, and under tight supervision and strict regulations. Similarly strict policies applied to Japanese visiting the institution. The building was destroyed by British naval gunfire during the

Bombardment of Kagoshima The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , was a military engagement fought between Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract compensation and legal justice from ''daim ...

in 1863.

References

*"The Rekidai Hoan: An Introduction to Documents of the Ryukyu Kingdom." ''Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia'' 3 (March 2003). 15 pages. *Sakai, Robert K. "The Satsuma-Ryukyu Trade and the Tokugawa Seclusion Policy." ''Journal of Asian Studies''. 23:3 (May 1964). pp391–403. *『薩摩と琉球』。鹿児島県の県立図書館。("Satsuma and Ryukyu." Kagoshima Prefectural Library Official Site.
https://web.archive.org/web/20071023171033/http://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/kentosho/shiryo/kityou-490.html
Accessed 10 October 2007. (Source in Japanese.)

External links

(Kagoshima) (Fuzhou) Foreign relations of the Ryukyu Kingdom Diplomatic buildings Former buildings and structures in Japan Former buildings and structures in China History of the foreign relations of Japan History of the foreign relations of China {{China-hist-stub

Fuzhou

Kagoshima

See also

References

External links