Yahara-ke goyo nikki

• Japanese: 八原家御用日記 (Yahara ke goyô nikki)

The Yahara-ke goyô nikki is an official diary kept by heads of the Yahara family of Tsuwaji Island, recording official business related to their duties as Tsuwaji district magistrate (gun bugyô), from 1768 up into the 1850s or 1860s.

The Yahara family served as district magistrates on Tsuwaji since the early Edo period, when in 1635 the lord of Iyo-Matsuyama han established a teahouse on Tsuwaji and named retainer Yahara Sanozaemon his deputy (nashiro) in overseeing matters on the island. Yahara's duties chiefly involved overseeing the comings and goings of ships on official shogunate business, or belonging to daimyô on sankin kôtai journeys, as well as Ryukyuan and Korean embassies to Edo; this included providing such ships with drinking water, firewood, and other needed supplies, and overseeing the corvee of boats and boatmen from neighboring areas, who would be called upon to escort or otherwise aid such elite vessels.

References

• Kimura Yoshisato 木村吉聡 (ed.), Ryukyu shisetsu no Edo nobori to Mitarai 琉球使節の江戸上りと御手洗, Shiomachi kankô kôryû Center 潮待ち館観光交流センター (2001), 73-74.
• Shirarezaru Ryûkyû shisetsu 知られざる琉球使節, Fukuyama-shi Tomonoura rekishi minzoku shiryôkan (2006), 113-134.