was a Ryukyuan aristocrat known for leading a movement to petition the government of

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to rescue the

Ryūkyū 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 ...

from annexation by

Imperial Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

, following the 1872 announcement by the

government of Meiji Japan The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empir ...

to do so. It was typical at this time for Ryukyuan aristocrats to have multiple names. Chōjō held the title of ''

ueekata ,The same kanji (親方) are pronounced ''oyakata'' in Japanese, in which the term is used in a variety of contexts with meanings roughly corresponding to "master." For example, in sumo, the term is used to refer to coaches. in the Okinawan langu ...

'' of the domain of Kōchi, and was thus known as "Kōchi ueekata". He was also known as .

Life

Details of his early life are unknown. In 1876, however, Chōjō left for China from Unten Harbor on the Motobu Peninsula, in the north of

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 ...

, claiming he was simply crossing over to nearby Iejima."Kōchi Chōjō." ''Okinawa rekishi jinmei jiten'' (沖縄歴史人名事典, "Encyclopedia of People of Okinawan History"). Naha: Okinawa Bunka-sha, 1996. p 28. Arriving in China, he adopted Chinese (Manchu) hairstyle and dress and, with the

Ryūkyū-kan were institutions serving as homes and bases of operations for Ryukyuan missions to Imperial China, Ryukyuan missions in early modern Fuzhou (Fujian province, China) and Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Kagoshima (Satsuma Domain, Japan). Fuzhou The Chines ...

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

as his base, he began traveling to various parts, seeking support for his cause: to convince the Qing government to aid Ryūkyū in remaining independent from Japan. Chōjō gathered other Ryukyuans who, like himself, had fled for China, including Rin Seikō (林世功) and Sai Taitei (蔡大鼎)."Kōchi Chōjō." ''Okinawa konpakuto jiten'' (沖縄コンパクト事典, "Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia")
Ryukyu Shimpo
1 March 2003. Accessed 17 September 2009. Together, they submitted numerous petitions to the Qing officials asking for help on behalf of the kingdom. Though there was little, if any, positive response for a long time, Chōjō and others refused to give up. He died in Fukien Province.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chojo, Kochi Ueekata 1843 births 1891 deaths 19th-century Ryukyuan people