Ryô Kôchi was a Ryukyuan scholar-official, who served as a musician (gakushi) on the 1806 Ryukyuan mission to Edo.
He studied in China for three years beginning at age 25, and later served for a time as an interpreter (tsûji). In 1804, at age 36, he was appointed to serve as a gakushi on the upcoming mission to Edo; he then did so, traveling to Edo with the mission in 1806.[1]
A piece of his calligraphy, copied onto a wooden plaque (hengaku) by the Japanese haikai poet Kurita Chodô, can be found today in the main hall (hondô) at Manshû-ji in the Inland Sea port town of Mitarai (today, part of Kure City, Hiroshima prefecture); the temple also holds the original calligraphic work, on a scroll, in its storehouses.[2]
References
- Gallery labels, "Kuninda - Ryûkyû to Chûgoku no kakehashi," special exhibit, Okinawa Prefectural Museum, Sept 2014.
- ↑ Kaneshiro Atsumi, "Gakudôji, gakushi, kagakushi - uzagaku o tsutaeta hitobito" 「楽童子・楽師・歌楽師－御座楽を伝えた人々」, 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), 77.
- ↑ Shirarezaru Ryûkyû shisetsu 知られざる琉球使節, Fukuyama-shi Tomonoura rekishi minzoku shiryôkan (2006), 37.