- Japanese: 具志川 按司 (Gushikawa anji)
Gushikawa anji was a figure who, according to traditional accounts, was the dominant power on Kumejima around the turn of the 16th century, until 1506, when King Shô Shin of the Ryûkyû Kingdom (that is, the king/lord of Shuri on the neighboring island of Okinawa) invaded and conquered Kumejima.
Little is known about this figure, who held the title of anji (roughly, "lord") of Gushikawa. He may have been a wakô lord of the Kawara lineage, of some relation to Oyake Akahachi (Honkawara) of Ishigaki Island, who fought Shô Shin's forces in 1500. Based at Gushikawa gusuku and controlling the nearby harbor of Yamato-domari as well as some or all of Kume's roughly thirteen iron-working centers, Gushikawa would have been a power in the region indeed.
References
- Gregory Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650, University of Hawaii Press (2019), 100-101.