Ijichi Sadaka

• Japanese: 伊地知貞馨 (Ijichi Sadaka)

Ijichi Sadaka was a Shimazu clan retainer prominent in negotiations surrounding the annexation of the Ryûkyû Kingdom and its new administration under the Meiji government in the 1870s.

In 1871/12-1872/1, Ijichi accompanied Narahara Shigeru as leaders of an Imperial mission to Shuri, to discuss the administration of the Ryûkyû Islands with the heads of the royal government there.

The following year (in 1873), Ijichi compiled a history of the Ryukyus' relationship with Japan, from antiquity to the present. Entitled Ryûkyû hôhan jiryaku (琉球封藩事略), it covers both the Ryukyuan missions to Edo and the kingdom's tributary relationship with China, but subtly emphasizes Ryûkyû's relationship with "Japan," rather than with the Shimazu or the Tokugawa shogunate, thus strengthening the Meiji government's claims to the islands.

References

• Marco Tinello, "The termination of the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo : an investigation of the bakumatsu period through the lens of a tripartite power relationship and its world," PhD thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (2014), 370-371.