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A few decades later, in [[1469]], a high-ranking government official & court aristocrat, Kanamaru, staged a coup, overthrowing the First Shô Dynasty, and installing himself (and his descendants) as king of Ryûkyû. As part of efforts to establish his legitimacy, he took the name Shô, so as to give some impression of a continuation of a Shô family as the rulers of the kingdom, despite being of no actual blood relation. He took the name King [[Sho En|Shô En]] for himself, and passed on the name Shô to his descendants; thus began the Second Shô Dynasty.

A few decades later, in [[1469]], a high-ranking government official & court aristocrat, Kanamaru, staged a coup, overthrowing the First Shô Dynasty, and installing himself (and his descendants) as king of Ryûkyû. As part of efforts to establish his legitimacy, he took the name Shô, so as to give some impression of a continuation of a Shô family as the rulers of the kingdom, despite being of no actual blood relation. He took the name King [[Sho En|Shô En]] for himself, and passed on the name Shô to his descendants; thus began the Second Shô Dynasty.

Each king was memorialized in an official posthumous royal portrait known as an ''ogoe'' (御後絵) in Japanese. These survive today only in black-and-white pre-war reproductions, as all the full-color painted originals were destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.<ref>Gallery labels, [[Shuri castle]].</ref>  

Each king was memorialized in an official posthumous royal portrait known as ''ugui'' (御後絵, ''[[ogo-e]]'' in Japanese). All of the ''ugui'' were stolen or destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, leaving prewar black-and-white photographs taken by [[Kamakura Yoshitaro|Kamakura Yoshitarô]] as the only visual record of their appearance; however, four of the roughly twenty missing ''ugui'' portraits resurfaced in the United States in 2024 and were returned to the Okinawa Prefectural government.<ref>[https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-boston-recovers-and-returns-22-historic-artifacts-to-okinawa-japan Art Crime Team: FBI Boston Recovers and Returns 22 Historic Artifacts to Okinawa, Japan], FBI website. 15 March 2024.</ref>

==Lineage of the First Shô Dynasty==

==Lineage of the First Shô Dynasty==