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Rykūkyu's tribute-tax to Satsuma during the Tokugawa period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Mitsugu Sakihara
Mitsugu Sakihara
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii
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Extract

In 1609, Satsuma, at the southern tip of Kyūshū, conquered Okinawa (then called the Ryūkyū Kingdom). Throughout the subsequent Tokugawa period, Satsuma was said to have kept the Ryūkyūans in a state of virtual slavery by plundering the profits of the lucrative Sino-Ryūkyūan trade and imposing an excessively heavy tribute-tax on the native products. This exploitation of Ryūkyū's trade and native resources was reported to have been one of the important financial resources for Satsuma; and one that made possible Satsuma's vigorous political and military activities in the middle nineteenth century leading to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. In spite of such claims, no study of this topic has been made except those that have been strongly colored by the sympathies of the writer.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , May 1972 , pp. 329 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

The author wishes to thank Dr Robert K. Sakai for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper and Dr Shunzo Sakamaki for the permission to use his valuable Ryūkyūan collection.

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6 Formula for the conversion of Ryūkyū's koku-daka into hulled rice is: koku-daka × 1/2 × 1·05. Ibid., p. 60.

7 Ibid., pp. 64–5.

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24 In Kinsei jikata keizai shiryō [Historical Materials on the Local Economy in the Early Modern Period], comp. Ono Takeo (Tokyo, 1958), I, 382–3.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., p. 384

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30 Shinzato's figure, 14,300 koku, included zaiban demai (Tax for the Magistrates), which he erroneously attributed to Satsuma. Sakihara, M., ‘The Significance of Ryūkyū in Satsuma Finances during the Tokugawa Period’, Ph.D. dissertation, 09 1971, University of Hawaii, Chapter 3.Google Scholar

31 Chōkon, Ginowan, ‘Ryūkyū ikkenchō’ [‘Dossier on Ryūkyū’], 1820. MS., folio. 11a–12.Google Scholar

32 Kitokurō, Ichiki, Ichiki shokikan torishirabesho [Secretary Ichiki's Investigation Report] (Tokyo, 1894)Google Scholar, reprinted in Okinawa kenshi [History of Okinawa Prefecture], comp. Ryūkyū Government (Naha, 1965), XIV-4, 572.Google Scholar

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34 In the nineteenth century, the price of Ryūkyū rice was consistently 2 momme of silver less than that of Satsuma rice per koku. Torao, Haraguchi, ed. Shimazu-ke retchō seido [Successive Institutions of the House of Shimazu], 1819–24, in VIII–1 and VIII–2 of Hanpōshū [Collected Institutes of the Han], compiled by Ishii Ryōsuke (Tokyo, 1969), VIII–2, 1002–5.Google Scholar Also during the Bunsei period (1818–29) Satsuma rice brought an average of 52.812 momme of silver per koku (Kagoshima kenshi, II, 366).Google Scholar Therefore, Ryūkyū rice probably brought 50.812 momme of silver per koku.

35 Kagoshima kenshi, II, 411.Google Scholar