Satsuma Invasion of Ryukyu (1609): Okinawa Under Japanese Control

The Satsuma invasion of Ryukyu was a military expedition in the spring of 1609 in which the Shimazu clan of Satsuma, in southern Kyushu, conquered the Ryukyu Kingdom, centred on Okinawa. Within about two months the invaders took the royal castle of Shuri and captured King Sho Nei. The conquest left Ryukyu in an unusual position for more than 250 years, as a vassal of a Japanese lord that still sent tribute to the emperors of China.

Background: a kingdom between two worlds

The Ryukyu Kingdom was unified in 1429 by Sho Hashi and soon became a tributary state of Ming China. Its ships carried goods between China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, and the tribute trade with China brought great wealth to its capital at Shuri.

To the north, the Shimazu family ruled the domain of Satsuma. They had long claimed a special relationship with Ryukyu and had suffered heavy costs in the wars of the late sixteenth century, including Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea. Hideyoshi had demanded that Ryukyu supply men and provisions for the Korean campaign, and Ryukyu had sent only part of what was asked.

After the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu hoped to use Ryukyu as a channel to restore trade with Ming China, which had broken off relations with Japan. When Ryukyu failed to send an embassy to thank Ieyasu for returning shipwrecked Ryukyuan sailors, Satsuma gained a pretext, and in 1606 Ieyasu gave his permission for an expedition.

The invasion

The Satsuma force numbered about 3,000 men on roughly 80 to 100 ships, under the command of Kabayama Hisataka, with Hirata Masumune as his deputy. It sailed from Yamagawa in southern Kyushu in early April 1609, in the third month of the Japanese calendar.

The fleet moved south through the island chain. It took Amami Oshima with little fighting and met resistance on Tokunoshima, which it overcame. The invaders then landed on the Motobu Peninsula in northern Okinawa and took Nakijin Castle. From there they advanced by land and sea towards Shuri.

Ryukyu’s forces were small and inexperienced, while the Satsuma samurai were battle-hardened and well armed with matchlock guns. After fighting near Naha harbour and outside Shuri, King Sho Nei agreed to surrender in early May 1609, in the fourth month of the Japanese calendar. The capital was occupied and the castle was looted.

Aftermath

Sho Nei and many of his officials were taken to Kagoshima. In 1610 the king was brought to Sunpu to meet Ieyasu and to Edo to meet the shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. In 1611 he returned to Shuri after he and his officials swore oaths of loyalty to the Shimazu. One senior minister, Tei Do, also known as Jana Oyakata, refused to sign and was executed in Kagoshima.

Satsuma imposed a set of regulations that restricted Ryukyu’s trade and foreign contacts, and it surveyed the kingdom’s land in order to fix an annual tribute. The northern Amami Islands were taken from Ryukyu and placed under Satsuma’s direct rule. Satsuma officials were stationed in Naha to supervise the kingdom.

The king, however, kept his title, his court and his government. Satsuma wanted Ryukyu’s tribute trade with China to continue, because it gave Satsuma access to Chinese goods and silver. Ryukyu therefore kept sending missions to Beijing, while Japanese control was concealed or played down in its dealings with Chinese envoys. The Ming court grew suspicious after the invasion and for a time reduced the permitted frequency of Ryukyu’s tribute missions.

For Satsuma the conquest was a valuable prize. The Amami Islands later became a centre of sugar production, worked under heavy obligations by their inhabitants, and the profits from sugar and the Chinese trade helped make Satsuma one of the richest domains in Japan by the nineteenth century.

A dual subordination

For the rest of the Edo period Ryukyu stood in a double relationship. It was a tributary of China, first of the Ming and from the 1650s of the Qing dynasty, whose envoys invested each new king. At the same time it was a dependency of Satsuma and, through Satsuma, of the shogunate. Ryukyuan embassies travelled to Edo on special occasions, such as the accession of a new shogun or king, and Satsuma encouraged them to dress in Chinese style to emphasise Ryukyu’s foreign character.

This arrangement fitted the shogunate’s controlled foreign relations, later known as sakoku, in which Satsuma acted as one of the gateways through which Japan dealt with the outside world. It lasted until the Meiji government abolished the kingdom in 1879 and created Okinawa Prefecture.

Timeline

• 1429: Sho Hashi unifies the Ryukyu Kingdom.
• 1606: Tokugawa Ieyasu permits Satsuma to send an expedition to Ryukyu.
• 1609, early April: The Satsuma fleet sails from Yamagawa.
• 1609, April: Amami Oshima, Tokunoshima and Nakijin are taken.
• 1609, early May: King Sho Nei surrenders at Shuri.
• 1610: Sho Nei meets Ieyasu at Sunpu and the shogun Hidetada at Edo.
• 1611: Sho Nei returns to Shuri after swearing loyalty to the Shimazu; Tei Do is executed.
• 1879: The Meiji government abolishes the kingdom and creates Okinawa Prefecture.

Why it matters

The invasion of 1609 shaped Okinawa’s history for centuries. It drew Ryukyu into the Japanese political order while preserving its ties to China, creating a dual identity that still influences how Okinawans see their past. It also shows how the Tokugawa shogunate managed foreign relations indirectly, through lords such as the Shimazu.