Maekawa Choyu

Maekawa peechin as seen in a 1710 handscroll painting depicting the Ryukyuan procession up to Edo castle. University of Hawaii, Hamilton Library, Sakamaki-Hawley Collection

• Born: 1664
• Died: 1726
• Titles: 前川親方 (Maekawa ueekata),　前川親雲上 (Maekawa peechin)
• Other Names: 向 可伝 (Shou Kaden / C: Xiàng Kěyún)
• Japanese: 前川朝邑 (Maekawa Chouyuu)

Maekawa Chôyû was a Ryukyuan scholar-official who served as a shisan on the 1710 Ryukyuan mission to Edo.

He was a seventh-generation descendant of Prince Urasoe Chôman, eldest son of King Shô Shin, and was named jitô of the Maekawa area of Tamagusuku magiri in 1686.

In 1705, he was elevated to high enough rank to be permitted to wear a purple court cap. A portrait of him painted that same year by Go Shiken appears in Kamakura Yoshitarô's 1982 book Okinawa bunka no ihô.

References

• Ueki Chikako 植木ちか子, “Uzagaku no gakushi oyobi gakudoji no isho” 御座楽の楽師及び楽童子の衣装, in Uzagaku no fukugen ni mukete 御座楽の復元に向けて, Naha, Okinawa: Uzagaku fukugen ensô kenkyûkai 御座楽復元演奏研究会 (2007), 148.