Yô Shunshi was a Ryukyuan scholar-bureaucrat known for his involvement in producing the first calendar calculated and compiled in Ryûkyû, along with his younger brother Yô Shun'ei.
Shunshi first began studying calendrics in 1665; he then traveled to Fuzhou in 1667 to continue that study. He received permission from the Qing emperor in 1670 to produce a calendar; his younger brother Yô Shun'ei arrived in Fuzhou that same year, and the two began to study together.
Yô Shunshi died in 1671/8, but his brother Yô Shun'ei continued his studies, and produced in 1673 the first calendar compiled by a Ryukyuan individual. The following year (1674), woodblocks were cut, and copies were printed and distributed across the kingdom.
References
- Isa Masako 伊佐雅子, "Okinawa no jikan ishiki to bunka no jikansei ni tsuite" 沖縄の時間意識と文化の時間性について, Okinawa Kirisuto-kyô gakuin daigaku ronshû 沖縄キリスト教学院大学論集 2 (2006), 3.