Imperial Chinese missions to the Ryūkyū Kingdom were diplomatic missions which were intermittently sent by the Yuan, Ming and Qing emperors to Shuri, Okinawa in the Ryūkyū Islands. These diplomatic contacts were within the Sinocentric system of bilateral and multinational relationships in East Asia.
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Some missions were sent to perform investiture ceremonies for the King of Ryūkyū, formally acknowledging him as King on behalf of the Chinese Imperial Court, and as a tributary subordinate.
The Envoys in Shuri
Shuri was the royal capital of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. It is today part of the city of Naha, Okinawa.
Upon the accession of a new king, the news was generally communicated to the Chinese capital, along with a petition for investiture, by a formal Ryukyuan tribute mission. Following the 1609 invasion of Ryukyu, beginning with the succession of Shō Hō, Satsuma Domain also had to be notified and asked for approval and confirmation of the new king.
Chinese envoys would then be dispatched - sometimes quite quickly, sometimes not until over a decade later - arriving in ships called ukwanshin (御冠船, lit. "Crown Ships") in Okinawan. The mission would usually consist of two official envoy ships, separate crafts carrying the chief envoy and his deputy, as some uncertainty accompanied the journey; these would be accompanied by a number of merchant ships. During Japan's Edo period, an agent from Satsuma known as a kansen bugyō (冠船奉行, "Investiture (Crown) Ships Magistrate") would be sent down to Ryūkyū to supervise the exchanges and interactions between Chinese and Ryukyuan officials, albeit from somewhat of a distance, given the policy of hiding Satsuma's involvement in Ryūkyū from the Chinese.
Envoys generally stayed in Ryūkyū for four to eight months, and were extensively entertained by the Ryukyuan royal court. A number of structures built for this purpose, including the Ryūtan pond and the Hokuden (North Hall) of Shuri Castle, can still be seen today on the castle grounds. The total Chinese entourage generally numbered between 300 and 800 people, and hosting and entertaining the Chinese envoys was an extremely expensive endeavor for the Ryukyuan court.
A "Dance Magistrate (踊奉行, odori bugyō, O: udui bugyō)" oversaw these entertainments; kumi odori, a traditional form of Ryukyuan dance-drama, was first created and performed for entertaining an investiture envoy and his fellows, in 1719.
Timeline of Missions
King Satto became, in 1372, the first Ryukyuan king to submit to Chinese suzerainty. Beginning with the investiture of Satto's successor, Bunei, in 1404, twenty-two such missions traveled to Ryūkyū in total, the last in 1866, for the investiture of Shō Tai.
In the late 19th century, the Sinocentric tributary state system was superseded by the Westphalian multi-state system.