Bai Izen

• Born: 1842/10/18
• Titles: 福地筑登之親雲上 (Fukuji chikudun peechin)
• Japanese/Chinese: 貝唯善 (Bai Izen / Bèi Wéishàn)

Bai Izen was the eighth head of the Bai family of the scholar-aristocracy of Naha.

The second son of seventh family head Bai Ien, he was named heir in 1854, at the age of 13, when his elder brother Bai Ikyô passed away. The following year, he took his first official position, as junior secretary (waka hissha) in the Oyamise, a position he held for 13 months. He had his coming of age ceremony at the end of that term, in 1856, and in 1862, at the age of 21, was promoted to secretary in the Oyamise, along with the rank of chikudun zashiki and the title of Takazato chikudun.

His first son was born on 1865/10/9, and was named Ijutsu. His second son, Ikô, was born on 1869/12/29.

In 1873, Izen's father, Bai Ien, was named jitô of Fukuji village in Kyan magiri, and took the title of Fukuji peechin; in conjunction with this, Bai Izen became Fukuji chikudun peechin. While the Ryûkyû Kingdom was dismantled over the course of the 1870s, much of the local administrative structures, aristocratic titles, and so forth were permitted to remain in place, under the policy of kyûkan onzon; it is unclear how this might have affected, for example, the Bai family.

Upon his father's death in 1881, Bai Izen became head of the family.

References

• Naha shizoku no isshô 那覇士族の一生 (Naha: Naha City Museum of History, 2010).