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Naha was home to one of four sets of scholar-aristocracies in the kingdom, along with Shuri, [[Tomari]], and Kumemura. Members of the Naha aristocracy were selected for certain governmental positions - largely those related to managing trade and the administration of Naha itself - often alongside scholar-officials from Shuri, while other positions were filled exclusively from the Shuri and Kumemura families. The highest position attainable for a member of the Naha scholar-aristocracy was that of ''Omonogusuku osasu-no-soba'', head of the [[Omonogusuku]], the royal storehouse located out in the harbor. The administration of the port town itself was headed by the [[Naha satonushi]] (O: ''Naafa satunushi''), who had under him some ten to twenty officials. Two Naha ''hissha'' and two Naha ''kari hissha'', whose position might be translated as "clerk" or "secretary," oversaw official records and archives, under the authority of the ''Omonogusuku osasu-no-soba'', and a number of Naha ''[[yokome]]'' served as inspectors, investigating local civil cases, under the jurisdiction of the ''[[Jito (Ryukyu)|jitô]]'' of the neighboring port town of Tomari.<ref>''Naha shizoku no isshô'' 那覇士族の一生 (Naha: Naha City Museum of History, 2010), 14.</ref>

Naha was home to one of four sets of scholar-aristocracies in the kingdom, along with Shuri, [[Tomari]], and Kumemura. Members of the Naha aristocracy were selected for certain governmental positions - largely those related to managing trade and the administration of Naha itself - often alongside scholar-officials from Shuri, while other positions were filled exclusively from the Shuri and Kumemura families. The highest position attainable for a member of the Naha scholar-aristocracy was that of ''Omonogusuku osasu-no-soba'', head of the [[Omonogusuku]], the royal storehouse located out in the harbor. The administration of the port town itself was headed by the [[Naha satonushi]] (O: ''Naafa satunushi''), who had under him some ten to twenty officials. Two Naha ''hissha'' and two Naha ''kari hissha'', whose position might be translated as "clerk" or "secretary," oversaw official records and archives, under the authority of the ''Omonogusuku osasu-no-soba'', and a number of Naha ''[[yokome]]'' served as inspectors, investigating local civil cases, under the jurisdiction of the ''[[Jito (Ryukyu)|jitô]]'' of the neighboring port town of Tomari.<ref>''Naha shizoku no isshô'' 那覇士族の一生 (Naha: Naha City Museum of History, 2010), 14.</ref>

The three neighborhoods of Tsuji, Watanji, and Nakashima served as the kingdom's chief pleasure districts. According to one source, there may have been as many as 3,000 [[courtesans]] operating in Naha at the beginning of the 19th century.<ref>Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Kei, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," ''Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô'' 31 (2006), 233.</ref>

The three neighborhoods of Tsuji, Watanji, and Nakashima served as the kingdom's chief pleasure districts. Tsuji and Nakashima were created as officially designated pleasure districts in [[1672]], and prostitutes previously operating illegally were gathered there, and became authorized. According to one source, there may have been as many as 3,000 [[courtesans]] operating in Naha at the beginning of the 19th century. The establishments were mostly, if not entirely, run by women as well, and to a certain extent the districts were self-contained entities, with their own distinctive administrative structures and community customs.<ref>Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Kei, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," ''Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô'' 31 (2006), 233-234.</ref>

[[File:Naha-model.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Model of central Naha in the 1930s, Naha City Museum of History. Note the City Hall (''shiyakusho'') and clock tower center; the City Auditorium (''kôkaidô'', right); and blue-roofed post office in the foreground.]]

[[File:Naha-model.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Model of central Naha in the 1930s, Naha City Museum of History. Note the City Hall (''shiyakusho'') and clock tower center; the City Auditorium (''kôkaidô'', right); and blue-roofed post office in the foreground.]]