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Shô Sen'i was a king of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]]. The younger brother of King [[Sho En|Shô En]], he inherited the throne in 1477 upon his brother's death.
Shô Sen'i was a king of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]]. The younger brother of King [[Sho En|Shô En]], he inherited the throne in 1477 upon his brother's death.
According to the ''[[Chuzan seikan|Chûzan seikan]]'', Shô Sen'i left his parents at age five and was raised instead by his brother, Kanamaru, the lord of [[Goeku gusuku]]. Once Kanamaru took the throne as King Shô En, he named Sen'i lord of Goeku, and intended him to be his heir.
Shô Sen'i abdicated a mere six months into his reign, after the [[noro|chief priestess]], his niece, claimed to have had a vision suggesting this course of action. Shô Sen'i was succeeded by his nephew, [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]], and died shortly afterwards.
His succession was a point of contention, as Shô En's wife, [[Yosoidon]], wished to see her son on the throne. Shô Sen'i's niece, the [[noro|chief priestess]] of the kingdom, arranged to have his enthronement ceremony conducted with all the priestesses facing west rather than the traditional east - a strong show of symbolism that the sun was not rising on Shô Sen'i's reign, but rather setting. Taking the hint, Shô Sen'i abdicated a mere six months into his reign, was succeeded by his nephew, [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]], and retired to Goeku only to die about a month afterwards.
Though believed by many historians to have been a politically engineered coup, this overturning of Shô Sen'i's reign is predictably represented in the ''[[Omoro soshi|Omoro sôshi]]'', the kingdom's official histories, and other such sources in terms of his relative lack of virtue or of the destiny to be the ruler compared to Shô Shin.
==References==
==References==
*"Shô Sen'i." ''Okinawa konpakuto jiten'' (沖縄コンパクト事典, "Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia"). [http://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/storyid-41746-storytopic-121.html Ryukyu Shimpo]. 1 March 2003. Accessed 18 December 2009.
*"Shô Sen'i." ''Okinawa konpakuto jiten'' (沖縄コンパクト事典, "Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia"). [http://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/storyid-41746-storytopic-121.html Ryukyu Shimpo]. 1 March 2003. Accessed 18 December 2009.
*Gregory Smits, ''Maritime Ryukyu'', University of Hawaii Press (2019), 128-129.
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