Sai On
Sai On, a top government official from 1712 to the early 1750s, sought to return Ryukyu and the "yukatchu" to their proper cultural and intellectual path. He described in his autobiography incidents in which he, the son of a low-ranked "yukatchu" family, was ridiculed by higher-ranking aristocratic children, despite his superior education and talent. Among his many reforms, he created opportunities for "yukatchu" without government posts to earn a living as farmers or forestry managers. He also issued regulations for the "yukatchu" in 1730, banning prostitution, which blossomed at the time and disrupted the noble nature of the aristocratic class, and setting mandates regarding the status of illegitimate offspring.