Zaiban bugyo

• Japanese: 在番奉行 (zaiban bugyou)

The Satsuma zaiban bugyô (resident magistrate) stationed in the main Okinawan port city of Naha was officially described in Satsuma documents as a metsuke (inspector). He and his staff of roughly 100 men from Satsuma oversaw activities in Ryûkyû, conveying orders and other messages from the daimyô, and reporting back whether the kingdom was behaving in accord with Satsuma's interests and edicts. He and his staff were explicitly required to limit their interactions with Ryukyuans as much as possible, and politically or administratively had only minimal influence on Ryûkyû's domestic affairs; it was chiefly in the fields of foreign relations, enforcing the ban on Christianity, and matters of crime and punishment, that the zaiban bugyô exercised any significant degree of power or influence, and then, of course, only in accord with his orders from Satsuma.

The position was created in 1631, with Kawakami Matazaemon serving as the first zaiban bugyô.

The staff of the zaiban bugyôsho (resident magistrate's office), numbering roughly 100 men altogether, included four yoriki (low-ranking samurai), several tsuke-yakunin (attachés), and a number of yokome (censors); some of these yokome were assigned to outlying islands, to keep an eye on goings-on there, on behalf of the zaiban bugyô. Most of these men served only for periods of three years, before returning to Satsuma and being replaced by a new batch of officials. They were lodged in a series of residences called the zaiban kariya or ôkariya (O: ufukaiya) located along the same street along with the office, in the Nishi district of Naha, on the western edge of Ukishima. Two Ryukyuan officials known as the okariya-no-kami (O: ukaiya mui) and okariya-no-kami bettô (O: ukaiya mui bettô) also aided in the administration of the office. From the late 18th century onward, an additional official, called the tôbutsuhô, oversaw the import of Chinese goods into Ryûkyû, and in particular their sale to Satsuma.

The annual Naha Tug-of-War competition between the four towns of Naha (Nishi, Higashi, Wakasa, Izumisaki) was traditionally held along this street. Satsuma also maintained an office called the uchakuya, located just outside of Shuri castle, and used by the zaiban bugyô and his men to prepare for visits to the castle.

As Satsuma's representative in Ryûkyû, the zaiban bugyô was forbidden from borrowing things or money from the Ryukyuan government treasury, or otherwise asking favors of the king; when members of the sanshikan or other high-ranking Ryukyuan officials came to his office on business, they were to be received by the zaiban bugyô himself, and not by members of his staff. As for the zaiban bugyô paying visits to government officials, or to the king, these were limited to New Year's greetings, official reports of the arrival or departure of the zaiban bugyô to/from his post, and certain other official circumstances; he was explicitly instructed not to overstay his welcome or to accept entertainments.

While the zaiban bugyô post and associated office were necessary for Satsuma to maintain some degree of awareness of, and influence upon, goings-on in the islands, it was at the same time to Satsuma's great advantage that it limit as much as possible its visible presence in, or influence upon, the islands. Throughout the Edo period, Satsuma made great efforts to perpetuate the fiction that the Ryûkyû Kingdom remained fully independent; Ryûkyû was useful to Satsuma primarily as a source of access to Chinese goods and information (intelligence) about conditions and events in China, and since the Ming Dynasty had severed all official Sino-Japanese relations, Ryûkyû's own relations with China could only continue so long as it was not a part of Japan. Or so the standard explanation of the logics of this triangular relationship goes.

Thus, numerous steps were taken to limit the visibility and impact of the zaiban bugyôsho in Naha. The office staff, and the magistrate himself, were prohibited from bringing their families with them from Satsuma, and also forbidden from fraternizing with Ryukyuans, let alone marrying Ryukyuan women. Those who did the latter were dismissed from their positions and sent home to Satsuma, their Ryukyuan family forced to remain behind.

By way of minimizing both expenses, and interactions with Ryukyuans, the magistrate and his staff were quite restricted in their travels, and in entertainments and the like. Satsuma's policies stipulated that when traveling, one should travel directly to one's destination without delay, and that engaging in private trade or business was forbidden; further, while in Naha, even when entertaining Ryukyuan officials or other guests, the office was expected to avoid banquets or feasts, as well as extensive entertainments. The bugyôsho was also meant to limit as much as possible cutting trees, using fuel, or its impact otherwise on Ryukyuan land and resources. Extensive hunting parties were similarly off-limits, due to the impacts on land and resources, the lavishness & expense of the activity, the potential of damage to private property, and the desire to limit interactions with Ryukyuans (e.g. officials who might be invited along on the hunt as guests). A certain amount of deer and boar hunting was allowed, however.

The yokome were charged with reporting back to Satsuma on the behavior of the zaiban bugyô and of their other colleagues, in order to help enforce these many policies and restrictions.

When the Ryûkyû Kingdom was abolished, and Okinawa prefecture created, in 1879, the zaiban bugyôsho briefly became the temporary prefectural office (karikenchô), and then became the regular, permanent prefectural office in 1881. The prefectural government was run from that location for nearly forty years, before being relocated to its current location near Izumisaki in 1920. Nothing of the zaiban bugyôsho or the kariya buildings survive today.

References

• Sakai, Robert K. “The Ryukyu (Liu-ch’iu) Islands as a Fief of Satsuma,” in John King Fairbank (ed.), The Chinese World Order, Harvard University Press (1968), 119-120.

See also

• Zaiban - Ryukyuan officials assigned to outlying areas of the kingdom
• Zaiban oyakata - the chief Ryukyuan official resident in Kagoshima

External Links

• The former site of the zaiban bugyôsho on Google Maps