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Created page with "*''Japanese'': 新垣 or 新嘉喜 ''(Niigaki or Aragaki)'' Niigaki (given name unknown) was a Ryukyuan aristocrat who later became a samurai in the servic..."
*''Japanese'': 新垣 or 新嘉喜 ''(Niigaki or Aragaki)''

Niigaki (given name unknown) was a [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryukyuan]] aristocrat who later became a samurai in the service of [[Satsuma han]]. He is thus an important example of a very rare number of cases of Ryukyuans being permitted/able to come to be regarded as (fully) Japanese.

Niigaki studied paper-making with his father while temporarily resident in [[Fujian]]; following his return to Ryûkyû, Lord of Satsuma [[Shimazu Shigehide]] heard of Niigaki's reputation as a papermaker, and enlisted his services to produce Chinese-style paper for the domain. Niigaki was thus named ''go-nando shihai okobito'' (御納戸支配御小人), or "''[[okobito]]'' in charge of the storehouse," and an official notice was sent from the domain government to the [[Ryukyu-kan|Ryûkyû-kan]] in [[1787]] notifying them that he was now a samurai in service to the domain, that his name should be moved from the [[kafu|Ryukyuan family registries]] to a new Satsuma one, and that he and his descendants would be permitted to wear Japanese clothing.

==References==
*[[Robert Sakai]], “The Ryukyu (Liu-ch’iu) Islands as a Fief of Satsuma,” in [[John K. Fairbank]], ''The Chinese World Order'', Harvard University Press (1968), 127, 313n44.

[[Category:Ryukyu]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Samurai]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
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