Zaiban (Ryukyu)

• Japanese: 在番 (zaiban)

Zaiban (lit. "resident watch[man]") was a title held by two types of officials in the early modern Ryûkyû Kingdom. The term can refer either to samurai officials sent from Satsuma han to keep an eye on the kingdom's adherence to Satsuma's policies, and also to Ryukyuan officials dispatched to the outer islands and some of the more remote regions of Okinawa Island to serve as inspectors.

Satsuma zaiban in Ryûkyû

The Satsuma zaiban (resident magistrate) stationed in the main Okinawan port city of Naha was officially described in Satsuma documents as a metsuke (inspector). He and his staff of roughly 100 men from Satsuma oversaw activities in Ryûkyû, conveying orders and other messages from the daimyô, and reporting back whether the kingdom was behaving in accord with Satsuma's interests and edicts. He and his staff were explicitly required to limit their interactions with Ryukyuans as much as possible, and politically or administratively had only minimal influence on Ryûkyû's domestic affairs; it was chiefly in the field of foreign relations that the zaiban exercised any significant degree of power or influence, and then, of course, only in accord with his orders from Satsuma.

The zaiban's staff of roughly 100 men included four yoriki (low-ranking samurai), several tsuke-yakunin (attachés), and a number of yokome (censors); some of these yokome were assigned to outlying islands, to keep an eye on goings-on there, on behalf of the zaiban. Most of these men served only for periods of three years, before returning to Satsuma and being replaced by a new batch of officials.

Ryukyuan zaiban

The Ryukyuan zaiban were officials of the Ryukyuan royal court, selected from the Ryukyuan scholar-bureaucrat aristocracy. Six were dispatched to Miyako, Yaeyama, Kumejima, and seven to various regions on the island of Okinawa proper. In the outer islands, one zaiban was assisted by two clerks. Kumejima had two zaiban - one overseeing Gushikawa magiri, and one overseeing Nakazato magiri.

References

• "Zaiban," Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia 沖縄コンパクト事典, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.
• Sakai, Robert K. “The Ryukyu (Liu-ch’iu) Islands as a Fief of Satsuma,” in John King Fairbank (ed.), The Chinese World Order, Harvard University Press (1968), 119-120.