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Created page with " Daijiji Seiin was a Japanese Buddhist priest who acted as an agent of the Shimazu clan on several missions to and from the Ryûkyû Kingdom in the 1580..."
Daijiji Seiin was a Japanese Buddhist priest who acted as an agent of the [[Shimazu clan]] on several missions to and from the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in the 1580s-1600s.
Daijiji was first dispatched to Ryûkyû in [[1589]] after a letter from [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] (dated 1589/1/17) ordered the Shimazu to suppress [[wako|pirate]] activity and to work to restore formal trade relations with the [[Ming dynasty|Ming Empire]]; the letter threatened the destruction of the Shimazu clan and military action taken against the Ryûkyû Kingdom if [[Shimazu Yoshihisa]] were not to take action.
After arriving in Ryûkyû, Daijiji then escorted Ryukyuan envoys Chôan and Adaniya ''peechin'' back to [[Kagoshima]] and then to [[Osaka]] for audiences with Hideyoshi himself. A letter given to the embassy by Hideyoshi, and another sent to Ryûkyû via the Shimazu after the embassy's return, ordered Ryûkyû to contribute to Hideyoshi's upcoming [[Korean Invasions|attempt to invade China and Korea]], and to send a formal diplomatic embassy (''[[ayabune]]'') to present Hideyoshi with gifts and respects.
Daijiji returned to Ryûkyû again nearly two decades later, in [[1608]]/8, acting as an envoy of the Shimazu and seeking Ryûkyû's official submission to Shimazu and [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa]] authority. The shogun formally granted the Shimazu permission to [[invasion of Ryukyu|invade Ryûkyû]] the following month.
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==References==
*Gregory Smits, ''Maritime Ryukyu'', University of Hawaii Press (2019), 213-214.
[[Category:Religious Figures]]
[[Category:Sengoku Period]]
[[Category:Ryukyu]]