Youtube daily bit Feb 25 2018

Hello and welcome to Discovering Okinawa!

My name is Graham, and we are at Shuri Castle.

In this video, I'll be explaining in short detail, the history of the rise and fall of

the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Shuri Castle, which is instead called Shuri-jō in Japanese,

was originally called "Sui Gushiku" in Uchinaaguchi.

"Uchinaaguchi" is the Okinawan name of the Okinawan language,

nowadays referred to as Hogen.

A "Gushiku" is an Okinawan term that refers to a castle that has stone walls

as in a layered defense.

Shuri Castle, or rather Sui Gushiku, [has been] burned down and rebuilt three times,

but was originally built between 1237 and 1248 A.D.

100 years after the castle's construction, Okinawa as an island was divided into three

different kingdoms during the period appropriately called the Sanzan-jidai – meaning "Three

Mountains Era":

Hokuzan, the Northern Mountain [kingdom],

Nanzan, the Southern Mountain [kingdom],

and Chūzan, the Middle Mountain [kingdom]

- where Sui Gushiku sat at that time.

Sanzan-jidai would last from 1314 to 1429 A.D.

It was [in 1429] that Shō Hashi would unite the three kingdoms and

form what we now call the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The Ryukyu Kingdom, however, would last for just 450 years – from 1429 to 1879 A.D.

During those 450 years, the Kingdom would be invaded

by the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain of Japan.

This attack would later be dubbed

"the Satsuma Invasion of 1609."

As a result of this invasion, King Shō Nei was taken back and

forced to become a puppet of the Satsuma.

This lead to the Ryukyu Kingdom becoming a vassal state under Satsuma control.

They were then forced to conduct trade with China on behalf of the Satsuma.

This was because China denied trading rights to any country that was not a part of its

empire, and while Japan was not a part of the Chinese empire, the Ryukyu Kingdom remained

a tributary state of China as it had been since 1372.

By 1611, the Satsuma had firm control of the Ryukyu Islands.

Many of those islands are nowadays part of the modern day Satsuan Islands.

In 1852, Ryukyu would be visited by the Black Ships of Commodore Perry.

The American Commodore forced his way into the Ryukyuan court,

and due to his intimidating Black Ships,

he was able to force a coal mining station in the Ryukyu Kingdom.

In 1872, the Ryukyu Islands, not including those [already] in the Satsuan Domain,

would be incorporated into Japan's feudal system as domains or "han",

and it was relabeled as "Ryukyu Han".

In 1879, the Ryukyu Islands were outright annexed by the Meiji government.

At that point, the domain was renamed, as all others had been in 1872,

as the prefecture of Japan we know today:

Okinawa Prefecture.

Well, that's all we have for our little bit of history about Shuri Castle.

If you enjoyed this video and you are interested in seeing more like it,

go ahead and hit that subscribe button!

Again, I'm Graham, and this is Discovering Okinawa.

Thanks for watching!