# Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan/Series 1/Volume 1/Notes on Loochoo

NOTES ON LOOCHOO,
BY
E. SATOW, Esq.
Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan,
on the 30th, October, 1872.
———o———
Loochoo, called Linkin by the Chinese and Riukiu by the Japanese, is the chief island of a group lying in the North Pacific Ocean, between the 24th and 29th parallels of latitude. Its name is said to be derived from a fancied resemblance to a ‘dragon lying stretched out,’ but is not written with the Chinese characters which would bear that interpretation. In the commencement of the 14th century it was split up into three independent sovereignties called Chiuzan, Sannan and Samboku, which were re-united under one monarch about the year 1430. Since that time it has been divided into three provinces, namely, Shimajiri Sei on the south, Chiuzan Sei in the centre, and Kunikia Sei on the north. The central province contains the capital Shiuri and its port Nafa. The whole number of subject islands, including those on the north which in later times were considered as belonging to the Princes of Satsuma, is thirty-six. The smaller ones are administered by a single Governor, while to Taiheizan (or Miyako) Yayéyama and Ôshima three, and to Bashi, two officials are appointed.
The Japanese manuscript account called Riukiu Jiriaku (by Arai Hakuséki), states that the first intercourse between Japan and Loochoo took place in the year 1451, ​under the Emperor Hanazono II, when certain Loochooans brought a present of a thousand strings of cash to Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the ruling Shôgun. In those days very little copper money was coined in Japan, and the greater part of the currency consisted of Yunglŏ (Yeiraku in Japanese) cash purchased from China by shipments of gold-dust, so that the offering was no doubt highly acceptable. From this time onwards the Loochooans frequently traded to Hiôgo, and we find mention made of another embassy in the year 1580, during the supremacy of Hidéyoshi, or, as Europeans usually style him, Taikô sama. The relations between Loochoo and the province of Satsuma wore always of a most friendly character, and vessels came annually to Kagoshima laden with presents. But about the beginning of the 17th century a Loochooan Minister named Jana, who was desirous of getting into favour with the Ming dynasty, at that time still rulers of China, persuaded the King to stop all communication with Japan. The Prince of Satsuma, Shimadzu Iyéhisa, who bore the title of Mutsu no kami, despatched a messenger to demand an explanation, but Jana treated the envoy with such disrespect that Iyéhisa’s anger was aroused, and he started for Sumpu (the modern Shidzuoka) where Iyéyasu was then enjoying the sweets of retirement after having subdued all his enemies, to obtain permission to use force in bringing the Loochooan King to his senses. Full power having been granted to him to take whatever measures he might judge necessary, he proceeded on his expedition in the month of March 1609, with a large fleet of war-junks. The bravery displayed by his troops was such that in a few months time they took the capital by assault, and making the king prisoner, returned in triumph to Kagoshima, where the unfortunate prince had to undergo a confinement of three years’ duration as an expiation for his offence. It appears from the annals that the Chinese did not discover this until after the king’s return, so that they were unable to assist their vassal.
From this date the kingdom of Loochoo became subject to the princes of Satsuma, the Shôguns not caring, ​or perhaps not venturing, to interfere with the conquest made by Iyéhisa. The only marks of homage which were required by the House of Tokugawa from the Kings were a submission to re-investiture upon the accession of a new Shôgun, conveyed through the medium of the Prince of Satsuma, and the despatch of embassies to Yedo to return thanks on the succession of each Loochoan Sovereign. We find from the chronological tables entitled Shinsen Nempiô that fifteen embassies, mostly undertaken for that purpose, came to the Shôgun’s capital, beginning with the year 1611 and ending with 1850. Considering the proximity of Loochoo to China, it is no cause for surprise that investiture should also have been received from the Court of Peking. Full descriptions of this ceremony are to be found in the Riukiu Kokushi riaku (Liukiu Kuosei liao) a Chinese work reprinted in Japan.
Very little appears to be known of the history of Loochoo anterior to the 12th century, and its real annals commence with Sunten, who ascended the throne in 1187. Shunten is said to have been the son of the famous warrior Tamétomo, who after the defeat of his party in the civil war of 1156, was exiled to Vries Island, and fled some years later to Loochoo. Shunten was succeeded by his son and grandson, after whom the throne was occupied by descendants of the ancient sovereigns during five generations. The son of the last being a child only five years old, the people set him aside, and elected the governor of Urasoyé, named Satto, to be their King. From him is descended in a direct line the present sovereign Shôtai, who is the 34th since Shunten.
The climate of Loochoo, as we should expect from its position, is very warm. Ice is never seen, and snow falls but rarely. The vegetation is green throughout the year, and resembles for the most part that of the south of China. Of rice six kinds are produced, of barley and wheat three, and six sorts of beans. The sweet potato is cultivated in large quantities, though not indigenous, and forms one half of the sustenance of the people. Each ​household possesses a number of plantain trees, from the fibres of which the women weave the only cloth made in the island. It is worn by both sexes throughout the year. Both the cotton and tea plants are cultivated, but apparently to no great extent. The sugar cane grows freely. The vegetables are of unlimited variety, including every kind of gourd and melon. Most of the trees known in Japan and several species peculiar to China are successfully reared. The domestic animals are the cow, horse, sheep, pig, cat and dog, and amongst wild animals the deer, ape and wild-boar are mentioned, but no beasts of prey exist in the islands. The natives keep domestic fowls, ducks and geese, and the game consists of wild pigeons of various sorts, quail, pheasants and mandarin-ducks. The swallow makes its visit in the month of August, and the hawk is blown over from the outlying islands by the north-east wind in October. Wild-geese are sometimes seen, but storks rarely. Of fish they have the shark, ordinary carp, perch, eel, mackerel and golden carp, besides prawns.
The houses of the Loochooans are built in Japanese fashion, with the floor raised three or four feet from the ground, and have mostly only one story, on account of the violent winds which prevail. They are roofed with tiles of a Chinese fashion, very strong and thick. The buildings in which they store their rice are built of wood and thatched with straw. They are supported on wooden posts about five feet high, and resemble the granaries of the Ainos, though constructed with much greater care.
According to Japanese accounts the natives of these islands are of a calm and reflective temperament, not given to losing their presence of mind even on the most trying occasions. They observe the precepts of Confucius and are extremely courteous in their demeanour towerds others. Conservative in their opinions, they also adore the native gods. In fact, such value do they attach to a polished behaviour that they style their native land ‘the country which observes propriety,’ and pillars inscribed with this appellation in Chinese characters stand at the corners of ​the streets in Shiuri. It may be as well to observe in passing that the name given to the metropolis of Loochoo means simply ‘chief city,’ according to the practice which also obtains in China and Japan, where we find Nanking and Peking on the one hand, Kiôto and Tôkei (or Tôkiô) on the other.
The customs of the Loochooans seem to be, in the main, derived from China, as we find is also the case in Japan, and it is not improbable that, while many changes have taken place in the two latter countries, the Loochooans have preserved those customs unaltered. The following details are taken from a Japanese named Tomioka Shiukô, who compiled a short notice of these islands entitled ‘Chiuzan-koku Shiriaku,’ or ‘Short account of the Loochooan Embassy,’ some twenty years ago, on the last occasion when an embassy visited Yedo.
The Sovereign wears a cap called ben, made according to a pattern worn in the time of the Ming dynasty. It is of black gauze, and consists of a spherical piece which sits close to the head, with a low crown rising above it. On each side rises a long piece of gauze (not unlike asses’ ears). The head-covering used by the nobles looks rather like a dried-up turban, and originally consisted of a long piece of cloth wound round the top of the head. At present it is formed of sheets of paper pasted together, covered with silk damask in overlapping layers, seven in front and twelve behind, and the rank of the wearer is indicated by the colour. The dress universally worn is a loose gown, descending to the feet, with sleeves reaching to the tips of the fingers. Under this is worn a short garment of silk or fine hempen cloth. Round the loins is wound a girdle fourteen or fifteen feet in length and six or seven inches in width. The stuff of both gown and girdle varies, of course, according to the rank of the wearer, the nobles indulging themselves in rich silks and brocades for these purposes, which are imported from China. These parts of their dress have evidently been ​borrowed from China, but their socks, straw sandals and wooden clogs are of the forms usual in Japan.
Both men and women tie their hair into a knot on the top of the head, passing a pin through it, sometimes more than a foot in length. The best are made of gold throughout, the next best of silver with a golden top, the commonest of copper. The girdle, worn exclusively by the men, is the only difference in the dress of the two sexes. Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen the ceremony called gembuku, which corresponds somewhat to coming of age, takes place for the males. The central part of the top of the head is shaven, and two short pins are substituted for the long one previously worn, one of which is ornamented with an artificial narcissus-flower, while the other has the form of an ear-pick. This practice of shaving part of the hair dates back only two centuries, and is probably a mark of Tartar influence. At the age of four-and-twenty the men grow their moustachios, and the beards six years later.
The study of Chinese literature is based on the commentaries of Kuŏdtzŭ, a learned scholar of modern times. Medicine is studied both in China and at Kagoshima, and no one is allowed to carry the medicine-case (inrô), which is the distinguishing mark of a physician, if he has had only a native doctor for his instructor. A few Loochooans endeavour to imitate the caligraphy of the old Chinese inscriptions, and read the classics according to the modern Chinese pronunciation, but the majority learn to write the Japanese hiragana, and copy the handwriting of the Japanese caligraphists Ôhashi and Tamaki. Instead of reading Chinese straight down the page, they construe it backwards and forwards into their own language like the Japanese. In the pictorial art they have copied both the Chinese and the Japanese, but they have also a school of native growth. Their music is that of the last two Chinese dynasties, and is performed on instruments of Chinese form. In the arts of arranging flowers in vases and of making tea, both of which require many years of practice, they follow the Japanese style, and they ​play such games as go, or draughts, according to Japanese rules.
As regards more manly accomplishments, they are expert archers on horseback and good marksmen with the matchlock. Their skill in boxing is such that a well-trained fighter can smash a large earthen water-jar, or kill a man with a single blow of his fist.
The men spend their lives away from home, and despise all other than official occupations, while the women remain within doors and keep house. Girls begin to learn their duties, which consist in spinning and weaving cotton, hemp and silk, at the age of four or five, and are married at fourteen or fifteen. In the higher classes valuable presents are made on these occasions, but the common people are not expected to go to greater expense than a bag of rice and two strings of cash. Formerly, when a male child was born his hair was allowed to grow naturally, but in more modern times it has become the custom to shave the head until the second or third year. The female children are tattooed on the arms, from the fingers up to the elbows, with small black dots. Their under-clothing is longer than that worn by boys, while the upper garment, which is shorter, is turned up outside. Though they wear no girdles, the wind cannot disarrange their dress, because they keep the opening of the gown closed with the hand as they walk along. Married women are seldom allowed to see any men but their husbands, with the exception, perhaps, of very intimate friends, and even then they may not converse. If a visitor calls when the husband happens to be from home, no matter how excellent the terms of intercourse may usually be, he is not allowed to come inside the door. These precautions are adopted in order to prevent suspicions of unfaithfulness from being excited. In the market places throughout the country only women are to be seen exchanging their wares, the men have no concern in the matter. It follows from this that they have no one to carry home their purchases for them, and they have to do this themselves, supporting the burden on a bundle of straw placed on the ​top of the head. The wives of the better classes go to market in the same way as the poorer women, from whom they are distinguished by a piece of cloth a foot long carried in the hand.
Formerly, when a Loochooan died, he was provisionally buried for three years, until his corpse decomposed so far as to leave only the bones. These were taken out of the coffin, washed clean in a kind of saké called awamori, and being placed in a small vase, were deposited in the tomb. The tombs are small holes excavated in hill sides, just large enough to admit the vase, and the entrances are closed with wooden doors or slabs of stone. It seems, however, that at the present time the ordinary Japanese method of burying the corpse at once is followed, the ceremony being conducted by Buddhist priests.
A man’s tomb is decorated with a piece of white cloth and a hat, and a pole is stuck in the ground close by on which are hung his straw sandals and wooden clogs. On a woman’s grave they place a palm leaf fan, fresh leaves of the same and a piece of white cloth.
There were formerly three classes of persons who shaved their heads and wore the skull cap called hempô, namely, the physicians, the king’s servants and his gardeners, but at the present time the Buddhist priests alone practise this custom. There are only two sects of Buddhists, the Shingon shiu and Rinzai shiu, both of which also exist in Japan. The Chinese Government does not allow Loochoöans to study theology within its dominions, and they are therefore compelled to go through the usual course at Kagoshima. Up to the beginning of the 18th century they were in the habit of making pilgrimages through Japan, but by a subsequent law they are prohibited from extending their peregrinations beyond the boundaries of the province of Satsuma.
The language spoken by the Loochooans, so far as I can judge at present from a vocabulary which Dr. Willis has kindly sent to me from Kagoshima, appears to differ very little from Japanese. One or two of the heads of the embassy now in Yedo, with whom I had an opportunity
* ↑ Ôshima, Kikiaga shima, Tokuno shima and Oki no Erabu shima were entirely under the jurisdiction of Satsuma. The author of the Chiuzankoku Shiriaku seems to have been ignorant of this fact. E. S.
* ↑ An embassy has since visited Yedo in the year 1872. E.S.
​of conversing a few days ago, spoke Japanese with perfect correctness. It is also stated that the higher officials are acquainted with the Court dialect of China. It would not be a hazardous conjecture to suppose that the Satsuma dialect of Japanese, which contains several words unknown in other parts of this country, is closely allied to the Loochooan tongue. This is, however, a subject which should be treated separately.
I will conclude with a free translation of the last page of the ‘Short Account,’ which, it must be remembered, was written in 1850, while the Tokugawa dynasty still flourished.
“Althougu Liukiu lies several hundred miles away in the sea to the south it can easily be reached by ship. The temperament of the people and their manners and customs closely resemble those of our own nation. The countries which from ancient times have rendered homage to Japan are China, Corea, Liukiu and Holland. Intercourse with China is restricted to visits made to Nagasaki for the purpose of trading, while the Coreans have ceased to visit the capital in modern times, and though the Dutch visit the capital, their numbers do not exceed three individuals on any one occasion. The envoys who came with presents from Liukin alone show evidence of appreciation of the perfect etiquette observed to foreign barbarians by the glorious line which rules over us. Though every one is acquainted with the valour of the province of Satsuma, it would be difficult to parallel its glory, which has lasted through countless generations, even to the present day.”