Tamekoro

• Born: c. 1570?
• Japanese: 為轉 (Tamekoro)

Tamekoro was a late 16th century Ryûkyû Kingdom official from Amami Ôshima.

Tamekoro was born perhaps around 1570, the son of Tameyoshi, the fourth-generation head of a lineage of Ryukyuan officials based on Amami Ôshima. After his father was lost at sea sometime in the 1570s (perhaps 1579) when returning from Shuri to take up his official post on Amami, Tamekoro at age nine traveled to Shuri himself where he studied for a time at the royal Zen temple Engaku-ji. At age 13, he then became an apprentice within Shuri castle as several of his predecessors had, and later returned to Amami Ôshima to take up an official position there. After some time overseeing Ushuku in Kasari district, he became the ôyako of Higashi (Setouchi) district, and later of Kasari.

When Shimazu clan forces landed at Kasari on 1609/3/7 in the initial stages of their broader invasion of the Ryûkyû Kingdom, Tamekoro is said to have surrendered immediately. He then accompanied Shimazu forces as they invaded further islands in the island chain, and made efforts to convince local officials to similarly surrender. Ultimately, the Shimazu permitted him to retain his post on Amami, and doubled his stipend from ten koku to twenty.

References

• Gregory Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, University of Hawaii Press (2019), 181.