Kamekawa Seibu
Kamekawa ueekata Seibu was a Ryukyuan scholar-official who served as a member of the Sanshikan in the early 1870s. He is known as a key figure in the opposition movement against the Japanese abolition and annexation of the kingdom. He is also known as a notable painter and calligrapher; while a number of works of Kamekawa's calligraphy survive, however, none of his paintings do.[1]
Following the return to Ryûkyû of the 1872 embassy to Tokyo, which returned with an imperial edict from the Meiji Emperor stating that King Shô Tai was now to be regarded not as a kokuô (king of a country) but as a han'ô ("king" of a domain), Kamekawa led other officials in raising objections. He demanded an investigation into who was responsible for accepting this edict, and demanded the resignation of his fellow Sanshikan, deputy envoy on the Tokyo embassy, Giwan Chôho.
Following the fall of the kingdom, Kamekawa continued to play a strong role in organizing and maintaining the opposition movement, as well as the faction which sought aid from the Qing Empire.
References
- Kawabata Megumu 川端恵, Shô Tai: Saigo no Ryûkyû ô 尚泰：最後の琉球王, Yamakawa shuppan (2019), 23.
- ↑ Junko Kobayashi, "The Demise of Ryukyuan Painting," Okinawan Art in its Regional Context symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 Oct 2019.
