41 Sho royal family documents are to become national treasures
The business log by the envoy group dispatched from Ryukyu to the new government following the Meiji Restoration (photo provided by the Naha City Museum of History)
March 21, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo
On March 18, Japan’s Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report to the Minister of Education, Culture, Spots, Science and Technology Masahiko Shibayama.
The report recommends that “The 41 Materials and Documents Related to the Sho Royal Family of the Ryukyu Kingdom and Document Box” should be designated as national treasures.
The said items are currently in the possession of Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture. They are expected to be officially designated as national treasures this summer.
Naha Mayor Mikiko Shiroma made an announcement about this on March 20.
Among the documents that are to be designated as national treasures is the business log by the envoy group dispatched by Ryukyu to the new government following the Meiji Restoration.
The dispatching of the envoy group eventually led to the Disposition of Ryukyu or the forced assimilation of Okinawa into Japan.
In 2006, 85 works of art and 1,166 documents related to the Sho royal family were designated as national treasures from Okinawa for the first time since the end of the war.
Which means that the total number of documents related to the Sho royal family designated as national treasures will be 1,207 once the abovementioned items are added.
The 38 documents and document box that are to become national treasures were donated to Naha City in August 2018 by Mamoru Sho, the 23rd head of the Sho family.
The remaining three documents were transferred in December 2018 from the Ishigaki City Yaeyama Museum to Naha City.
A representative of the Naha City Cultural Properties Division said, “Like the other documents that have already been designated (as national treasures,) these documents are vital in understanding how the Ryukyu royal government operated.”
Naha City to Shed Light on the Disposition of Ryukyu
Among the Sho royal family documents are the “Tokyo Diary” and records listing the clothes worn by the king during New Year ceremonies.
Experts hope these documents will reveal the details of the duties and operations of the Ryukyu royal government.
Naha City is to restore and begin deciphering documents.
The envoy group that appears to have written the “Tokyo Diary” were dispatched to Tokyo to celebrate the establishment of the Meiji Government under the Emperor’s orders.
But in actuality, they had received a “pseudo document bestowing peerage” in which the Emperor recognized Ryukyu King Sho Tai as the “Ryukyu Domain Lord.”
It is said that this was the beginning of the Disposition of Ryukyu.
On the cover of the log lists the names Prince Ie and Ginowan Ueekata, who had been dispatched.
University of the Ryukyus Emeritus Professor Kikou Nishizato who looked at the cover of the “Tokyo Diary” pointed out that the secretary of the document may be a different secretary compared to a similar resource that has already been designated as a national treasure.
Kikou Nishizato specializes in Chinese-Ryukyu-Japanese relations.
He said, “This is likely to become an important historical resource to understand the details of the envoy group movements and the Ryukyu royal government’s response.
I’d like to hurry up and take a look at the contents.”
The 38 documents and document box that are to be designated as national treasures had been stored at Hiroshi Matsumoto’s house in Tokyo.
Hiroshi Matsumoto is the son-in-law of Hiroshi Sho, the 22nd head of the Sho Family.
Part of the Sho Family documents are already on display at the Naha City Museum of History and will remain on display while occasionally changing the content.
Additionally, the resources related to the Ie Udun Family, which is to be designated as an important cultural property, was put on display starting March 22.
(English translation by T&CT and Chelsea Ashimine)
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