Sho Dynasty

• Japanese: 尚王統 (Shou outou)

The Shô family which ruled the Ryûkyû Kingdom was in fact two separate lineages.

After Hashi, king of Chûzan, conquered the kingdoms of Hokuzan and Nanzan, uniting the island of Okinawa and establishing the Ryûkyû Kingdom in 1429, he was granted the name Shô (C: Shang) by the Ming Court as a royal surname, and was recognized as the legitimate ruler of Ryûkyû as a tributary state. This name was then passed down as the royal, dynastic, surname of the Kings of Ryûkyû.

A few decades later, in 1469, a high-ranking government official & court aristocrat, Kanamaru, staged a coup, overthrowing the First Shô Dynasty, and installing himself (and his descendants) as king of Ryûkyû. As part of efforts to establish his legitimacy, he took the name Shô, so as to give some impression of a continuation of a Shô family as the rulers of the kingdom, despite being of no actual blood relation. He took the name King Shô En for himself, and passed on the name Shô to his descendants; thus began the Second Shô Dynasty.

Lineage of the First Shô Dynasty

• Shô Shishô (d. 1421) - 1st king of the Shô Dynasty
  • Shô Hashi (1371-1439) - 2nd king of the Shô Dynasty, son of Shô Shishô, united Okinawa and established Ryûkyû Kingdom