Ryukyutsy

The Ryukyu Islands are also sometimes called the Lyceum Islands , and the Ryukyus Islands are Lyceum . This term comes from the Chinese transcription of hieroglyphs, which record the name of the Ryukyu islands - Liu-qiu, Liu-chu, Lieu-Kieu, Liu-Kiu. Such names were previously widely used in the geographical literature of pre-revolutionary Russia and Europe. By the beginning of the 21st century, the terms Liu-chu and Luchus ( Lyceans ) are sometimes found in European, Japanese and American ethnographic literature, as well as the terms Ryukyu and Ryukyus.

The main range of settlement of Ryukyushans is the Ryukyu Islands, administratively included in the Japanese prefectures of Okinawa and Kagoshima (a group of Amami Islands ). In Okinawa Prefecture, the vast majority of the population are backpackers. Modern Ryukyus and Japanese have common ancestors of the Jomon (natives of Southeast Asia). In contrast to the Yamatos (Japanese) that came from the mixing of Jomonians and migrants from the continent who came through the Korean Peninsula , the Ryukyus on the Ryukyu Islands, like the Ainu on Hokkaido, were isolated from the migration waves on Kyushu , Honshu and Shikoku , which means that their ethnogenetic processes were evolutionary character ^[1] . Human skeletons of Minatogawa discovered in 1967 in Okinawa (dated 16-14 thousand years BC) are the ancestors of the Jomon.

In the Middle Ages, the Ryukyus had their own statehood: at first it was the principalities of Hokuzan, Nanzan and Tyuzan on the island of Okinawa, and from the 15th to the 19th centuries the kingdom of Ryukyu . These state entities did not have full sovereignty: first, the Ryukyus paid the Chinese Ming Dynasty, and after the Manchu conquest (XVIIth century) of the Qing Dynasty . Since 1609, after a punitive military expedition under the command of daimyo Tadatsune Shimazu with the consent of the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu , the Ryukyu kingdom has also become a vassal of the Japanese principality of Satsuma (present Kagoshima Prefecture ) and has long hidden this fact from China . After the annexation of Ryukyu by the Japanese Empire in 1879, the Ryukyus were assimilated and began to lose their cultural characteristics in the field of language and religion.

The Three Kingdoms (1314-1429)

In the XIII-XIV centuries, during the Sanzan period ( я 山 時代 Sanzan dzidai ) , there were three principalities in Okinawa : Hokuzan ( 北山 «," Northern Mountain ") , Nanzan ( 南山 ," Southern Mountain ") and Tyuzan ( Jap. 中山 , "Central Mountain") . All three principalities were tributaries of China, and all three fought for power over the island. In 1416, Khashi , the son of Prince Tyuzan and the de facto ruler of the principality, captured Hokuzan. Hashi gained the favor of China; In 1421, when Khashi inherited the throne of Tyuzan, the Chinese emperor Zhu Di gave him the name Shё (尚, in Chinese, “ shan ”) and the title of wang (王, in the Ryukyus “ о: ”), that is, the king or king of the island.

Kingdom of the Ryukyus (1429-1879)

In 1429, Sho Hashi conquered Nanzan, thus unifying the whole island for the first time. He built Shuri Castle and the port of Naha , reigning until 1439. The state gradually expanded to neighboring islands. Towards the end of the 15th century, the Sho Vans ruled the entire southern part of the Ryukyu archipelago, and in 1571 they became rulers of the Amami and Oshima archipelagos off the coast of Kyushu .

There were few natural resources on the Ryukyu archipelago, therefore, since the founding of the state, the Shаны van have chosen maritime trade as the main vector of economic development. Ryukyus ships called at the ports of China, Japan, Korea , Vietnam , Siam , Malacca , Java , Luzon , Sumatra and Borneo . The Minsk policy of banning maritime trade allowed the Ryukyu merchants to work in the Chinese direction with minimal competition. (The ban did not apply to Ryukyu, since the Ryukyu Van paid tribute to China and did not engage in piracy.) The scale of trade with China was such that back in 1439 the emperor allowed the Ryukyus to build a separate trading post in Quanzhou . Ryukyu tried to maintain friendly relations with all neighbors at the same time. If relations between the two neighboring states for some reason spoiled - for example, between China and Japan because of another city plundered by Japanese pirates , then the rulers of the Ryukyu acted as an intermediary for the transport of goods between the warring parties. Thus, from the fourteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century, the Ryukyu was a wealthy and prosperous trading state. From the second half of the 16th century, competition with the Portuguese in the south and the Japanese in the north led to the end of the era of prosperity. In 1450, conflicts began with Japan, when the Japanese feudal lord Hosokawa Katsumoto, the ruler of Shikoku , captured the Ryukyus ship; similar incidents continued. Starting in 1527, Japanese wokou pirates began to attack Okinawa. To protect Naha, Vanam Ryukyu had to build two forts. In 1588, Japan's unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi demanded that the Ryukyu state participate in a campaign against Korea and a further planned war with China. Shё Ney , van Ryukyu, deciding that China is stronger than Japan, did not answer and stopped sending representatives to Kyoto. In 1600, power in Japan passed to Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara . The daimyo who fought against Tokugawa at Sekigahara, at least fell into disgrace. Among the disgraced feudal lords was Shimazu Yoshihiro , the powerful ruler of Satsuma. Under pressure from Tokugawa, Yoshihiro renounced power in favor of his nephew Tadatsune Shimazu , but Tadatsune was also unable to find a location with the shogun. Unable to advance either at court or to fight the northern neighbors friendly to Tokugawa, the new daimyo Satsuma turned his eyes to the south, to the thriving but militarily weak kingdom of Ryukyu.

In 1603, a representative of Satsuma advised Ryukyu to submit to Japan and show respect for the Tokugawa shogun. Sho Nei refused. Then Shimazu Tadatsune asked Tokugawa for permission to punish Ryukyu for being rude to Japan. In 1606, Tokugawa agreed, and three years later the Shimazu fleet sailed south.

In the spring of 1609, the Satsumi army landed on Okinawa, defeated the local civil militia and plundered the Shuri castle and the Van treasures. Sho Nei was taken hostage and sent to Japan for two years. In 1611, after Shё Ney was allowed to return to his homeland, he and his court had to sign a peace treaty stating, among other things, that the state of Ryukyu had always been Satsuma's vassal. The islands of Amami and Oshima were annexed to Satsume Khan (for this reason in modern Japan they are part of Kagoshima Prefecture and not Okinawa ), but Sho Van was allowed to continue to rule the rest of the Ryukyu archipelago within the framework established by Satsuma. Thus, Ryukyu was in a double feudal dependence: from the Chinese emperor (relations with China continued) and from the daimyo Satsuma.

In 1615, Sino-Japanese negotiations came to a standstill; China has banned Japanese ships from entering Chinese ports. Thanks to the Sakoku policy , European merchants lost the right to call at Japanese ports. Thus, the main flow of trade between Japan and China went through the kingdom of Ryukyu, which was in double vassal dependence on the Chinese empire of Ming and the Japanese principality of Satsuma. Trade with China was important for the prestige and financial well-being of Saimuma daimyo. To avoid possible conflicts with China, the Satsuma rulers ordered Ryukyu to pretend to be an independent state, and Ryukyu residents were forbidden to use Japanese names and clothes. Representatives of Ryukyu abroad were forbidden to mention Ryukyu’s dependence on Satsuma. Japanese subjects were not allowed to visit Ryukyu without government permission. Even the Ryukyu ambassador to Edo was required to negotiate only through an interpreter. China soon learned about the true state of affairs, but Ryukyu’s independence game allowed everyone to save face and continue profitable trade ^[4] .

Ryukyu Khan (1872-1879)

In November 1871, the “ Mudan incident ": 54 sailors of the Ryukyu island of Miyako suffered a disaster near the south of the island of Formosa (Taiwan), most of them were killed by Taiwanese Paivan natives. At that time, Ryukyu was officially a vassal of China, but in response to a note from the Japanese government demanding to punish the killers of “Japanese subjects” (in fact, Ryukyu had long been dependent on Japan), China replied that it was not responsible for what was happening on the eastern coast of Taiwan. In order to testify that all the inhabitants of Ryukyu are citizens of Japan, and that Ryukyu itself is located within the Japanese Empire, on September 14, 1872 the kingdom of Ryukyu was renamed the Imperial Rescript into the autonomous inheritance of Ryukyu - khan . At the same time, Van Ryukyu Sh Тай Tai received the status of a Japanese nobleman, Kazoku, and became Prince of Ryukyu-khan, administratively subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. In 1871, the Japanese government liquidated autonomous khans in Japan and established prefectures in their place , which were directly subordinate to the center. However, Ryukyu received the transitional status of a khan so that in the future Japan could carry out the final annexation of the Ryukyus archipelago ^[5] .

In 1875, the Japanese government appointed diplomat Miyuki Matsudu to be responsible for the annexation of Ryukyu and began negotiations on the annexation of the Ryukyu state in Japan. In response, the Ryukyu authorities chose a procrastination tactic and delayed the solution of the issue in every way. At the same time, Qing China declared its rights to the Ryukyu and imposed economic sanctions on Japan. In 1879, a Japanese landing force of 300 soldiers and 160 policemen landed on the island of Okinawa. On March 11, 1879, Matsuda announced the liquidation of Ryukyu Khan, and that by the end of the month, Ryukyu Khan would be considered Okinawa Prefecture and part of the Japanese metropolis. On March 31, by exerting force pressure on local authorities, he secured the surrender of the main stronghold of the Ryukyussey, the castle of Shuri. The state of Ryukyu was liquidated, and the provisions of the 1871 Japanese administrative reform on autonomous principalities were canceled.

Okinawa Prefecture (1879 - present)

In Ryukyu, they were very unhappy with the power methods of the Japanese government. The local nobility tried to organize a movement of disobedience, and some officials secretly began to travel to Qing China, complaining about the actions of the Japanese. The Qing Dynasty sought to maintain a protectorate over the Ryukyu, and therefore expressed strong opposition and rejection of the annexation to the Japanese government. Qing army generals offered to start a war to return the vassal state, but the head of the Chinese diplomatic department, Li Hongzhang, tried to solve the problem through the mediation of former U.S. President Ulysses Grant , who was in China at that time. In July 1879, Grant arrived in Japan and invited the Japanese authorities to resolve the Ryukyu issue together with the Qing Dynasty. Official Tokyo agreed to negotiations, and in October 1880, the American gave the Japanese his plan for the division of the Ryukyu. According to this plan, Japan was supposed to recognize the sovereignty of Qing China over the islands of Miyako and Yayeyama of the former Ryukyu state. In exchange for this service, it was proposed to enter Russian into the text of the Tianjin Friendship Agreement of 1871, a new Most-favored-nation provision for trade in Japan. However, the Grant project was not implemented due to the position of the Chinese side, which considered it unprofitable. The issue of Ryukyu territorial affiliation remained the main stumbling block in Sino-Japanese relations. It was finally resolved in favor of Japan only after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 . Until 1912, the Japanese left in the prefecture the old system of administration, taxes and management. The lack of modernization has led to a chronic socio-economic backwardness of the prefecture from the regions of Central Japan. A significant part of the population left their homeland in search of work, having moved to the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu or American Hawaii ^[2] .

Okinawa was hit hard during World War II . During the battle of Okinawa in 1945, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed between Japanese and US troops. The number of victims was large due to the demand of the Japanese government and the military not to surrender. After the war, Okinawa was in the zone of American occupation until 1972. Despite the restoration of Japanese independence in April 1952, the Ryukyu Islands remained under US control. Following the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan regained independence, but some of its territories remained under US control, in particular the island of Okinawa. American military control functioned in these territories, the US dollar served as the currency (replacing the so-called B-yen), right-hand traffic was acting on the roads, instead of the Japanese left-hand one. In this territory, US military personnel were not punished for any crimes.

On December 20, 1970, on the territory of the city of Koz (20 km from the capital of the prefecture of the city of Naha ), one of the largest anti-American demonstrations by the local population took place . About five thousand Okinawans and seven hundred US troops clashed in a battle. The uprising began with a traffic accident: a car with drunk American troops knocked down a local resident. Several dozen rebels made their way into the territory of the Kaden airbase , where they destroyed everything they could get to. More than seven dozen cars were burned and many other American property destroyed, the office of the Stars and Stripes newspaper destroyed. Rebels used Molotov cocktails , using alcohol from neighboring bars and restaurants. Military police used tear gas. The result was sixty wounded Americans and eighty-two arrested local residents.

The Americans hatched plans for the restoration of the statehood of the Ryukyusha within the Ryukyu Islands, however, under pressure from the public and political expediency, they returned Okinawa to the Japanese side ^[2] .

Thanks to Okinawa's close historical ties with China, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, the local culture developed under constant foreign influence. Nevertheless, Okinawa has become the birthplace of many distinctive cultural practices, objects and techniques: martial art of karate , a sanshin musical instrument (an ancestor of the shamisen ), a method of dyeing bingat fabrics, the Ryuk poetic genre, a special architectural style, traditional yachimun ceramics and many others. In 1393, Chinese immigrants arrived in Tyuzan , forming the Kume community near the capital of Shuri . From the time of the three kingdoms (the Sanzan Period ), until the end of the existence of the kingdom of Ryukyu, the village of Kumemura has been a cultural and educational center ^[6] .

In the culture of the Ryukyusseans, Chinese and New Japanese influence are noticeable along with ancient national features. In more urbanized areas of the islands, Japanese influence is more pronounced, and in rural areas, especially in remote mountain villages, old national traditions are preserved to this day.

Martial Arts

Okinawan martial arts include karate , tegumi and kobudo , which arose among the indigenous inhabitants of Okinawa. Due to its central location, Okinawa was influenced by various cultures with a long history of trade and cultural exchange, including Japan, China and Southeast Asia, which had a huge impact on the development of martial arts in Okinawa.

• Karate is an Okinawa martial art originating from Chinese Quan-fa .
• Kobudo is an Okinawan martial art using edged weapons, both shock-crushing and piercing-chopping.
• Daegumi is a traditional wrestling popular in Okinawa until the Taisho period .

Languages

The Ryukyushans speak Japanese and related Ryukyu languages : there are still six indigenous languages ​​on the Ryukyu Islands. UNESCO calls four of them “unconditionally” threatened ^{[7] [8] [9] [10]} , and the other two “threatened” ^{[11] [12]} . These languages ​​are different from Japanese , although they all belong to the same family as the Japanese-Ryukyu family . The Ryukyu languages ​​are in decline, since from the time of joining the Japanese Empire, the Ryukyu people were subject to assimilation by the Japanese; Okinawan schools teach only in Japanese.

Today, the Ryukyu languages ​​remain native to about a million people, most of whom are old. Some children learn Ryukyuk, usually if they live with their grandparents. Few born in the 1990s call one of the Ryukyushas their native language. Folk songs are sung in Ryukyusha, and a rukyazychny news radio broadcast is issued ^[13] .

Speakers of dialects (languages) of Amami , Miyako , Yayeyama and Yenaguni usually also know Okinawan . Many Yonagun speakers know Yayama. Since the islands of Amami , Miyako , Yayeyama and Yonaguni are less urbanized than Okinawa , their languages ​​do not die out as quickly as Okinawan; growing children still speak them. The age ratio of Okinawan speakers is unknown, but it is rapidly losing ground in the Okinawan native language.

From ancient times, official documents on the Ryukyu were written in classical Chinese . Japanese began to influence the Ryukyu languages ​​in the 1880s, with the final conquest of the archipelago and its transformation into Okinawa Prefecture.

Literature

Okinawa still has its own poetic genre of ryuk (“Ryukyu songs”), transformed in the 16th century from another poetic genre by reducing the number of syllables. Ryuk was usually composed in Okinawan and performed to the music of the sanshin instrument. Ryuka continues to exist not only in Okinawa itself, but also in the Ryukyu diasporas in Hawaii and Peru.

Religion

Traditionally, the inhabitants of Okinawa and surrounding islands professed their Ryukyu religion , worshiping deities in sacred places of utaka , which could be a small temple, grove or top of a mountain. It is forbidden for men to enter the utakas, so during the time of the monarchy the van (king) underwent the rite of “becoming a woman” in order to visit the main sanctuary of the islands of ^[14] or other utakis ^[15] . The Ryukyus people pay great attention to the role of women in society, so women are not only custodians of the hearth, but also hold the post of priestess in the Ryukyus religion. Since the 15th century, the status of the high priestess ( kikoe-ogimi ) was introduced on the islands, which, according to tradition, was chosen from among the daughters, nieces, or sisters of the ruling van, and was equal to it in its position and influence. The High Priestess had the right to appoint village noro priestesses throughout the kingdom. Between the Kikoe-ogimi in Shuri (the capital of the kingdom) and the village (communal) noro stood the so-called priestesses of the districts who mediated between them. The post of priestess at all levels held for life and passed it by inheritance. To provide them with livelihoods, land plots that were not taxed were allocated, which were also inherited ^[16] . After the occupation of the islands by Japan, many of the utakas were turned into Shinto shrines of the jinja . By the beginning of the 21st century, the majority of the Ryukyusers of the young generation are no longer adherents of the Ryukyus religion.

National Costumes

The national costumes of the Ryukyusians are similar to the Japanese: free stocked yukats for men and women. The most common fabric color is blue with a white stripe for men, with white small dots for women. Such fabrics are known in mainland Japan as ryukyuk fabrics . By the beginning of the twenty-first century, ethnic clothing was worn on the islands by mostly older people.

Kitchen

The national cuisine of the Ryukyussev developed under the influence of Chinese , Korean and cuisines of the countries of Southeast Asia due to the long history of trade with them. Many medical researchers associate a large number of centenarians in the Ryukyu Islands with Okinawan cuisine and the products used in it ^[17] . A significant event for the kingdom of Ryukyu was the delivery of sweet potato seeds from the Chinese province of Fujian. This was done in 1606 by Noguni Sokan, the youngest employee of the Ryukyu trade mission in China. Sweet potato yielded good yields on scarce soils of the archipelago, while rice yields suffered greatly from typhoons frequent in the region ^[18] .

Ryukyu ceramics

Yachimun (Okinawan: 焼 物) in Okinawan means “ceramics” ^[19] . This term refers to the pottery of the kingdom of Ryukyu. Since the appearance of the Chinese village of Kumemura in Okinawa, local residents have begun to adopt various aspects of Chinese culture, including elements of decorative art. A significant event for the development of pottery production was the beginning of the production of Avamori , the distillation method of which and raw materials (Thai rice) were brought from Siam . The consumption and sale of this liquor outside the Ryukyu kingdom led to the import of bottles adapted for long-term storage of the drink. Dependence on containers bought from the outside prompted local artisans to produce containers for various types of Avamori. After the invasion of Okinawa by the Japanese principality of Satsuma in 1609, enterprises were affected by restrictions. This situation has led to the strengthening of local craftsmen who produce items necessary for the population. The period of innovation for ceramics began: daimyo Satsuma sent three Korean potters to teach local craftsmen how to make a glazed type of ceramics. These three potters Ikkan, Ichiroku and Sankan settled in the Wakut pottery workshop. After the unification of the three pottery workshops of Wakut, Tiban and Takaraguchi in 1682 under the auspices of the government of the kingdom of Ryukyu, the Tsuboy district in the city of Naha became the center for the production of Ryukyu ceramics. Pottery produced in workshops in the area is called Tsuboya-yaki (壺 屋 焼). In addition to utensils, vessels for Avamori and shingles, Ryukyu ceramics are especially famous for funeral urns and local mascots of sis (from figurines to small statues) ^{[20] [21]} .

Architecture

Despite the devastating battles during the Battle of Okinawa , many remains of unique Ryukyu fortresses called the gusuku remained on the islands. Few of them have been restored. The most famous of the restored gurus is Shuri Castle . While most houses in Japan are made of wood, which allows for free air supply to combat dampness, typical modern houses in Okinawa are made of concrete with gratings to withstand regular typhoons. Roofs are designed to withstand strong winds, on which each tile of tiles is cemented. Prior to using the cement mortar, the Ryukyusers used a mixture of corals to fix the tiles. It was easy to distinguish such roofs by color: it is gray in cement and white in coral mix. In the village of Onna, there is the Ryukyu-mura theme park (from п 村 - Ryukyu village), into which ten traditional houses from different corners of the Ryukyu archipelago were transported ^[22] . Each of them was disassembled for transportation and reassembled in the park. Houses with original red tiled roofs, their walls are made of coral limestone ^[23] .

• History of post and stamps Ryukyu
• Okinawa surnames