Ryukyu-ki

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  • Japanese: 琉球記 (Ryuukyuu ki)

The Ryûkyû-ki (roughly, "Record of Ryûkyû") was a text referenced by Arai Hakuseki of which there are no known extant copies. It seems to have contained some extent of information about the Ryukyu Islands or Ryukyu Kingdom, and to have contained at least some waka. In the Tokushi yoron, Hakuseki quotes one waka from the text as indicating that Tenjin was worshipped even in Ryûkyû.[1]

References

  • Joyce Ackroyd, Lessons from History: Arai Hakuseki's Tokushi Yoron, University of Queensland Press (1982), 19, 317, 353.
  1. The poem reads:
    いづくにも
    梅さえあらば
    我と知れ
    心づくしに
    ほかなたずねそ。

    When plum trees bloom,
    wherever it may be,
    my presence know!
    Be not led by loyalty
    to seek me in vain elsewhere.