Ryukaku danki

Ryûkaku danki (lit. "record of conversations with Ryukyuan guests") is an account of various aspects of China, focusing on Ryukyuan missions to China, and published in 1797. It was written by Akazaki Kaimon, a Confucian scholar of Satsuma han, at the request of daimyô Shimazu Shigehide, and based on conversations he had, in Edo,[1] with members of the 1796 Ryukyuan embassy to Edo about their experiences in China.

Two of those interviewed were gieisei (head of street musicians) Tei Shôkan and musician Sai Hôkin. Akazaki asked them, in Chinese, about the route they traveled to Beijing, their stay in Beijing, things they heard while in China, and so forth, in order to record whatever new and useful information he could about China.[2]

The published volume included an afterword by Shibano Ritsuzan, a scholar of the Shôhei school.

References

  • Gallery labels, Gallery 3: Early Modern Japan, National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura, Chiba, July 2013.
  • Hakubutsukan tenji gaido 博物館展示ガイド A Guide to Permanent Exhibitions of Museum, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum (2007), 44.
  1. Ta-Tuan Ch’en, “Sino–Liu-Ch'iuan Relations in the Nineteenth Century,” PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 1963, 123.
  2. Maehira Fusaaki, Ryûkyû shisetsu no ikoku taiken 琉球使節の異国体験, Kokusai kôryû 国際交流 59 (1992), 63.