Changes

''Anji'', also known as ''aji'', were a class of landed local lords in the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]]. They were the highest [[Ryukyuan court ranks|ranking in the Ryukyuan royal court]] below princes (''ôji''), and above the ''[[ueekata]]''.

''Anji'', also known as ''aji'', were a class of landed local lords in the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]]. They were the highest [[Ryukyuan court ranks|ranking in the Ryukyuan royal court]] below princes (''ôji''), and above the ''[[ueekata]]''.

Prior to the 16th century, ''anji'' ruled domains or estates in the Okinawan countryside. Often based at ''[[gusuku]]'' fortresses, they wielded considerable local power. In the early 16th century, however, King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]] made efforts to consolidate power in the hands of the central royal government. He confiscated the lords' weapons and required them all to reside in [[Shuri]], the royal capital, rather than on their own estates out in the countryside. ''Anji'' mansions were established in Shuri, organized according to the region one nominally controlled, whether it was located in Northern, Central, or Southern [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]]. Through involvement in court culture and court politics, the ''anji'' quickly developed into a more cohesive class than they had been in previous centuries, and their presence in Shuri contributed to the further development and consolidation of Ryukyuan elite culture, and of urbanization, commercialization, and economic integration of the kingdom, as ''anji'' brought goods and commodities from their domains to the capital and vice versa.

The ''anji'' first emerged in the 8th to 10th centuries, as local power-holders, who we might think of as chiefs, village heads, or local lords, emerging independently in each locale out of tribal or similar social structures. Eventually, one lord emerged as a sort of "chief of chiefs," to whom most or all of the other ''anji'' submitted, or at least paid lip service; from [[1187]] until [[1314]], the ''anji'' were thus loosely united under these figures who we today call "kings." The island fractured in the early 14th century, and for roughly one hundred years, from around 1314 until the 1420s, the island was divided into [[Sanzan period|three kingdoms]], within each of which, ''anji'' continued to hold considerable power in their respective localities, under the dominion of a king to whom they owed taxes and certain services; the ''anji'' in turn demanded taxes and labor from the peasants of their domains.

 

As these kingdoms coalesced, the ''anji'' gradually shifted from being akin to chiefs or local headmen to a somewhat more organized, defined, class of "lords," a landed nobility, within something perhaps akin to a feudal system. Their domains shifted from being akin to independent chiefdoms, to being more akin to lordly domains under a king. Meanwhile, though, even as they claimed loyalty to their kings, throughout these two periods (loose unity, and then the three kingdoms), across the 13th-14th centuries, powerful ''anji'' worked to consolidate power for themselves, building ''[[gusuku]]'' fortresses, and battling one another for land and power.  

 

Thus it was that up until to the 16th century, ''anji'' ruled domains or estates in the Okinawan countryside, and wielded a considerable degree of semi-independence and power within their domains. Around [[1526]], however, King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]] made efforts to consolidate power in the hands of the central royal government. He confiscated the lords' weapons, banned them from maintaining their own armies, and required the ''anji'' to reside in [[Shuri]], the royal capital, rather than on their own estates out in the countryside; this worked to severely curtail the individual, independent power of the ''anji'', and to hinder their ability to rise up against the king. Shô Shin also reorganized their lands into ''[[magiri]]'' (districts), and ''shima'' (villages). ''Anji'' mansions were then established in Shuri, organized according to the region one nominally controlled, whether it was located in Northern, Central, or Southern Okinawa. Through involvement in court culture and court politics, the ''anji'' quickly developed into a more cohesive class than they had been in previous centuries, steeped in [[Confucianism|Confucian]] ideas of government and of the gentleman noble. Their presence in Shuri also contributed to the further development and consolidation of Ryukyuan elite culture, and of urbanization, commercialization, and economic integration of the kingdom, as ''anji'' brought goods and commodities from their domains to the capital and vice versa.

The ''anji'' left deputies, called ''anji okite'', to administer their lands on their behalf, and some years later a system of ''jito dai'', agents sent by the central government to oversee the outlying territories, was established. Some ''anji'' of the northern regions were allowed to remain there, not moving to Shuri, as they were too powerful for the king to force their obedience in this matter; the king's third son was made Warden of the North, however, and granted authority to maintain peace and order in the region<ref>[[George Kerr|Kerr, George]]. ''Okinawa: The History of an Island People''. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000. pp105-8.</ref>.

The ''anji'' left deputies, called ''anji okite'', to administer their lands on their behalf, and some years later a system of ''jito dai'', agents sent by the central government to oversee the outlying territories, was established. Some ''anji'' of the northern regions were allowed to remain there, not moving to Shuri, as they were too powerful for the king to force their obedience in this matter; the king's third son was made Warden of the North, however, and granted authority to maintain peace and order in the region<ref>[[George Kerr|Kerr, George]]. ''Okinawa: The History of an Island People''. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000. pp105-8.</ref>.