Ryukyuan religion
Shō Shin also effected significant changes to the organization of the native "noro" (巫女, village priestesses) cult and its relationship to the government. He owed his uncle's abdication, and his own succession to his sister, the "noro" of the royal family, a special position known as the "kikoe-ōgimi". He established a new residence for the "kikoe-ōgimi" (聞得大君) just outside the gates to the castle, and erected high walls in 1519 around the Sonohyan Utaki, the sacred space and accompanying sacred hearth which she tended. A system by which the king and "kikoe-ōgimi" appointed local "noro" across the kingdom was established, tying this element of the native Ryukyuan religion into formal systems of authority under the government.