Mo Teichu

• Born: 1745
• Died: 1801
• Titles: 兼本親雲上 (Kanemoto peechin)
• Other Names: 宣猷 (Sen'yuu, or Sen'you)

Mô Teichû was a Ryukyuan scholar-official who served as the gieisei (head of street musicians) in the 1790 Ryukyuan embassy to Edo.

The sixth head of the Yoseyama family, the chief family (honke) of the Mô family of Kumemura, Teichû was known for his particularly superb calligraphy. Examples of his calligraphy can be found carved into a stone lantern at Tsushima Shrine in Gifu, and on another stone lantern, this one at Komatsu-ji in Tomonoura, at the grave of Yoseyama peechin Shô Dôkyô, a member of the 1790 mission who died aboardship on the way to Edo.

Mô Teichû's name had originally been Sen'yô (or Sen'yû), but the character sen (lit. "proclaim," "announce") was banned within the kingdom, and so he changed his name to Teichû.

References

• Watanabe Miki. "Nihon ni okeru Ryûkyû shiseki 日本における琉球史跡." (personal webpage).