Shō Hashi
Shō Hashi died in 1439, at the age of sixty-eight, having united Ryūkyū and established its place as a small, but recognized, power in the region. Upon his death, the court appointed his second son, Shō Chū, his successor, and sent emissaries to the Chinese court to ask for investiture, to the Japanese Shōgun in Kyoto and to the courts of a number of other kingdoms, as diplomatic missions.