Kunjan Seiya

• Born: 1591
• Died: 1635/8/1
• Title: Kunjan anji
• Other Names: 馬瑞彩 (Ba Zuisai), 左馬頭 (Sama no kami)
• Japanese: 国頭正弥 (Kunigami Seiya)

Kunigami Seiya, also known as Kunjan anji, was a scholar-official in the government of the Ryûkyû Kingdom. He was the lord of the entire magiri of Kunigami (O: Kunjan).

He inherited the title from his father Kunigami Seiei in 1609, becoming the sixth generation head of the Ba family to be Kunjan anji.

In 1614, Seiya was sent to Kagoshima as a hostage, where he remained until 1616. With the permission of daimyô Shimazu Iehisa, he joined the Satsuma forces deployed to take part in the 1615 Osaka Summer Campaign, being given the Japanese-style title Sama no kami, and a number of troops under his command. The fighting ended, however, before Kunigami arrived.

He returned to Ryûkyû in 1616, traveled once more to Kagoshima in 1632 as a nentôshi (congratulatory envoy sent at the top of every year), and died in Ryûkyû in 1635. The sword given to him by Shimazu Iehisa in 1615 was reportedly passed down within the Ba family as a family heirloom until the early 20th century.

References

• "Kunigami Samanokami" 国頭左馬頭. Okinawa Encyclopedia 沖縄大百科事典. Okinawa Times, 1983. vol 1. p961.
• "Kunigami Seiya" 国頭正弥. Digital-ban Nihon jinmei daijiten デジタル版 日本人名大辞典. Accessed via Kotobank.jp, 12 November 2011.
• Andreas Quast, "Shimazu Iehisa presented military weaponry to Ryukyuan leader," Ryukyu Bugei, 26 Feb 2018.