Ryukyu-kan
- Japanese/Chinese: 琉球館 (Ryuukyuukan / Liuqiu guan)
Ryûkyû-kan were institutions serving as homes and bases of operations for Ryukyuan missions in early modern Fuzhou (Fujian province, China) and Kagoshima (Satsuma province, Japan).
Kagoshima
The Ryûkyû-kan in Kagoshima was located below the castle, on the site occupied today by Nagata Middle School and governmental food provisions offices.
It played a central role in relations between the Kingdom of Ryûkyû and the han to which it was a vassal, serving a function not unlike a modern-day embassy. Visiting dignitaries lived and worked in the Ryûkyû-kan, as did students studying classic subjects in preparation for careers in the kingdom's bureaucracy, and a number of Ryukyuan permanent residents of the city. Satsuma's control over the Ryukyuan officials was tight, however; wandering or loitering in the area around the building was forbidden, and guards posted at the entrance checked visitors in and out[1]. Ryukyuans could travel around the city, and to other parts of the country, only on official business, and under tight supervision and strict regulations. Similarly strict policies applied to Japanese visiting the institution.
Fuzhou
The other Ryûkyû-kan (Liuqiu guan in Chinese pinyin), was located in the Chinese city of Fuzhou. Built around 1430-1440, and originally known as the rouyuan yi (J: jûen-eki),[2] this was one of a number of stations established by the Chinese to cater to foreign visitors. Fuzhou became the official site for Ryukyuan business in China in 1470, and for a Maritime Trade Office, or shibosi previously located in Quanzhou. The administration of the rouyuan yi in Fuzhou, now known as the Ryûkyû-kan, which had previously been operated by Chinese officials, was now placed under Ryukyuan control. The hall now took on a more official status as the chief Ryukyuan headquarters in southern China, as the laiyuan yi (J: raien-eki, lit. "station for [those who] come from faraway"), a similar institution in Quanzhou, declined. Custom dictated that establishments for foreigners, such as this one, be placed outside the city gates, so as to prevent visiting foreigners from spying on formal goings-on within the city; to that end, the Ryûkyû-kan was built just beyond the city gates (specifically, the Suibumen).
The Ryûkyû-kan covered roughly 5600 m2, and contained a variety of facilities. Its dormitories were one of three places in the city, along with the nearby Kaido-kan and Kokushi-kan[3], which housed visiting dignitaries, scholars and students, most of whom were stopping in Fuzhou on their way between Beijing and Okinawa. The costs of hosting these visitors were mostly borne by the Chinese side. The Ryûkyû-kan also contained storage areas, where goods being gathered or prepared to be given as tribute were held, alongside offices for liaising with the Fuzhou shiboshi Maritime Trade Office. A series of shrines on the grounds were dedicated to Tenpi (Mazu) and local deities, and a mortuary chapel was erected in the memory of Ryukyuans who died in China. Chinese officials also maintained a residence at the Ryûkyû-kan.
The structure was renovated seven times during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In the 1870s, a small number of fleeing officials temporarily made the Ryûkyû-kan their base of operations as they tried to convince China to take action to oppose Japan's overthrow and annexation of the Ryûkyû Kingdom. They were ultimately unsuccessful, and the kingdom's territory was annexed by the Meiji state as Okinawa Prefecture. For a brief period in the early decades of the 20th century, a group of Okinawans operated a tea business out of the Ryûkyû-kan.
Today, the Qing period building has been completely lost. A new structure was built in 1992, in a local Fuzhou residential style, with high walls to protect against fire and crime. The grounds contain a small museum, and gravestones for Ryukyuans who died in China during the Qing Dynasty are on display. Though the Ryûkyû-kan was originally built on the banks of a tributary of the Min River, today the river has gone mostly underground, so the reconstruction has moved slightly, facing the Wanshou Bridge (J: Manju-bashi).
References
- "Jûen-eki 柔遠駅." Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia 沖縄コンパクト事典. Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.
- "The Rekidai Hoan: An Introduction to Documents of the Ryukyu Kingdom." Editorial Office of Rekidai Hoan, Okinawa Archives, Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education (trans.). Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia 3 (March 2003). 15 pages.
- Sakai, Robert K. "The Satsuma-Ryukyu Trade and the Tokugawa Seclusion Policy." Journal of Asian Studies. 23:3 (May 1964). pp391-403.
- 『薩摩と琉球』。鹿児島県の県立図書館。("Satsuma and Ryukyu." Kagoshima Prefectural Library Official Site.) http://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/kentosho/shiryo/kityou-490.html Accessed 10 October 2007. (Source in Japanese.)
- Watanabe Miki. "Nihon ni okeru Ryûkyû shiseki 日本における琉球史跡." (personal webpage).
- Watanabe Miki. "Chûgoku ni okeru Ryûkyû shiseki - Fuzhou-shi-nai 中国における琉球史跡・福州市内." (personal webpage).
