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

early modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

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 ...

(

Fujian province Fujian is a province in southeastern 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 capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefecture city by population is Qua ...

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 ...

) and

Kagoshima , is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 583,966 in 285,992 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Etymology While the ...

(

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

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 ...

Fuzhou

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

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

'') 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 Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

and the Chinese capital of

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. 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 Sovereign state, 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 ...

. 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract ...

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