- Born: c. 1767-1768
- Died: 1790/10/13, Tomonoura
- Titles: 與世山親雲上 (Yoseyama peechin)
- Chinese-style name: 向道亨 (Shou Doukyou)[1]
- Japanese: 朝易 (Chou eki)
Yoseyama peechin Chôeki, also known by the Chinese-style name Shô Dôkyô, was a young Ryukyuan scholar-aristocrat, who served as a musician in the 1790 Ryukyuan embassy to Edo.
Dôkyô never reached Edo. When the Ryukyuan mission arrived in the port town of Tomonoura (near Hiroshima), on the evening of 1790/10/13, Dôkyô had already died of illness, possibly related to the sea voyage.[2] He was 22 years old. He was buried the following morning at the temple Komatsu-dera in that town. His tombstone, inscribed and erected by Confucian scholar Yamamuro Nyosai at the orders of Abe Masatomo, lord of Fukuyama han, reads 「琉球司楽向生碑」.
Six years later, in 1796, his father Chôiku toshiyori ueekata[3], and grandfather, Sanshikan Fukuyama Chôki, visited the temple and donated a plaque reading 「容顔如見」.
References
- Ryûkyû shisetsu, Edo he iku! 琉球使節、江戸へ行く！, Okinawa Prefectural Museum (2009), 10.
- Maehira Fusaaki, "Edo nobori no tabi to bohimei" 江戸上りの旅と墓碑銘, Okinawa Bunka Kenkyû 21 (1995), 83ff.
- ↑ Maehira indicates that the surname is 尚, indicating a direct relation to the royal family, rather than 向, an honorary name for non-royal aristocrats.
- ↑ Miyagi Eishô 宮城栄昌, Ryûkyû shisha no Edo nobori 琉球使者の江戸上り, Tokyo: Daiichi Shobô (1982), 210.
- ↑ Shirarezaru Ryûkyû shisetsu 知られざる琉球使節, Fukuyama-shi Tomonoura rekishi minzoku shiryôkan (2006), 147.