Changes

For the remainder of Japan's [[Edo period]] after the 1609 invasion, the kingdom served two masters, ostensibly independent, though a vassal to Satsuma and a tributary to China. As formal relations between Japan and China were severed, extensive efforts were made to hide Japan's control or influence over Ryukyu from the Chinese Court. If Beijing believed Ryukyu to be a part of Japan, it would have likely severed ties with Ryukyu as well, denying the kingdom and the shogunate not only a source of income and foreign goods through trade, but also a source of intelligence on events in the outside world, particularly China. Foreign trade, along with tributary missions and student exchange to China continued throughout this period, though overseen by Japanese authorities, and controlled so as to best benefit Satsuma and the shogunate, not the kingdom itself. Ryukyuans were forbidden from speaking Japanese, dressing in Japanese fashion, or otherwise revealing the Japanese influence upon them; the very few who were allowed to go abroad were to speak Chinese and to espouse a combination of native Ryukyuan and Chinese culture. This was not only policy for official envoys and official communications, but was circulated throughout the kingdom, instructing commoners and villagers (peasants) similarly, that if they were to be shipwrecked or castaway in China, for example, they should not speak of relations with Japan, or reveal their own familiarity with Japanese language or culture.<ref>[[Watanabe Miki]], "Ryûkyû kara mita Shinchô" 琉球から見た清朝, in Okada Hidehiro (ed.), ''Shinchô to ha nani ka'' 清朝とは何か, Fujiwara Shoten (2009), 257.</ref>

For the remainder of Japan's [[Edo period]] after the 1609 invasion, the kingdom served two masters, ostensibly independent, though a vassal to Satsuma and a tributary to China. As formal relations between Japan and China were severed, extensive efforts were made to hide Japan's control or influence over Ryukyu from the Chinese Court. If Beijing believed Ryukyu to be a part of Japan, it would have likely severed ties with Ryukyu as well, denying the kingdom and the shogunate not only a source of income and foreign goods through trade, but also a source of intelligence on events in the outside world, particularly China. Foreign trade, along with tributary missions and student exchange to China continued throughout this period, though overseen by Japanese authorities, and controlled so as to best benefit Satsuma and the shogunate, not the kingdom itself. Ryukyuans were forbidden from speaking Japanese, dressing in Japanese fashion, or otherwise revealing the Japanese influence upon them; the very few who were allowed to go abroad were to speak Chinese and to espouse a combination of native Ryukyuan and Chinese culture. This was not only policy for official envoys and official communications, but was circulated throughout the kingdom, instructing commoners and villagers (peasants) similarly, that if they were to be shipwrecked or castaway in China, for example, they should not speak of relations with Japan, or reveal their own familiarity with Japanese language or culture.<ref>[[Watanabe Miki]], "Ryûkyû kara mita Shinchô" 琉球から見た清朝, in Okada Hidehiro (ed.), ''Shinchô to ha nani ka'' 清朝とは何か, Fujiwara Shoten (2009), 257.</ref>

The kingdom became in various ways a tool for both the Shimazu and the shogunate, not only for purely economic benefit, but also to political ends. Ryukyuan students and embassies to Beijing provided unparalleled intelligence on Chinese matters which could not be gained from Korea or from merchants at [[Nagasaki]], who largely knew only of coastal and maritime matters. Tributary missions from Ryukyu to [[Edo]] were accompanied by great pomp and circumstance, and considerable entourages, though subsumed within the much larger Shimazu party making its obligatory ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' journey to the capital. The enforced exoticism of the Ryukyuan embassies reinforced for the shogunate and the Shimazu family both the notion that an entire foreign kingdom submitted to their authority. The shogunate made use of this to consolidate perceptions of the legitimacy of its authority, while the Shimazu used it as leverage to gain higher [[court rank]] and to negotiate for the bending of laws and taxation.

The kingdom became in various ways a tool for both the Shimazu and the shogunate, not only for purely economic benefit, but also to political ends. Ryukyuan students and embassies to Beijing provided unparalleled intelligence on Chinese matters which could not be gained from Korea or from merchants at [[Nagasaki]], who largely knew only of coastal and maritime matters. Tributary missions from Ryukyu to [[Edo]] were accompanied by great pomp and circumstance, and considerable entourages, though subsumed within the much larger Shimazu party making its obligatory ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' journey to the capital. The enforced exoticism of the Ryukyuan embassies reinforced for the shogunate and the Shimazu family both the notion that an entire foreign kingdom submitted to their authority. The shogunate made use of this to consolidate perceptions of the legitimacy of its authority, while the Shimazu used it as leverage to gain higher [[court rank]] and to negotiate for the bending of laws and taxation.