Shō Tai
At the same time, in 1871, there occurred an incident in which a Ryukyuan ship wrecked on the Taiwanese coast and its crew was killed by the local natives. Kagoshima pressured Shō Tai to send a formal petition to Tokyo, asking for redress; the event would blossom into an international incident and eventually lead to the dispatch of a Japanese military expedition to Taiwan in 1874. To help resolve this problem and others concerning the relationship between Ryukyu and Japan, Shō Tai was advised to journey to Tokyo and formally pay his respects to Emperor Meiji, acknowledging at the same time his (and therefore his kingdom's) subordination to the Emperor of Japan. Shō Tai refused, and sent Prince Ie, his uncle, and Ginowan Ueekata, one of the kingdom's top ministers, in his place, claiming illness prevented him from making the journey himself. At Tokyo, the envoys were presented, on behalf of their King, with a proclamation declaring the kingdom to now be "Ryukyu Han", that is, a feudal domain under the Japanese Emperor in the manner of those abolished the previous year in the Japan mainland. This new arrangement meant freedom from subordination to Satsuma, but it also meant incorporation into Japan and subordination to the Imperial government in Tokyo.