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Author: Richard Pearson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865898
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418
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Book Description
Who are the people of the Ryukyu Islands? How could they survive and prosper on small, isolated islands? How did the independent Ryukyu Kingdom become a major player in East Asian medieval trade? Ancient Ryukyu explores 30,000 years of human occupation in the Ryukyu Islands, from the earliest human presence in the region up to A.D. 1609 and the emergence of the Ryukyu Kingdom. It focuses on the unique geopolitical position of the islands, their environment, and the many human communities whose historical activities can be discerned. Drawing on the impressive work of dozens of local archaeologists who have brought the islands’ early history to life, Richard Pearson describes explorers and sojourners and colonists who arrived thousands of years ago, and their ancient trade links to Japan, Korea, and China. Through a case study focused on the medieval castles and palaces of the Ryukyu Kingdom, he demonstrates the vigorous trade taking place in East Asia before the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century A.D. He also shows how archaeologists have sought to reconstruct monuments on Okinawa Island that were obliterated in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Through analysis of work completed at about 120 sites described in dozens of rare Japanese government reports with limited circulation, Pearson is able to show that many modern features of the culture, politics, and economy of the Ryukyu Islands have very deep roots. The book concludes with a discussion of aspects of Ryukyu archaeology that are significant for world archaeology and the archaeology of islands. Ancient Ryukyu offers an up-to-date treatment of an unusually long span of human history in the Ryukyu Islands and will become the definitive work in English on the premodern era.
Author: Richard Pearson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865898
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Get Book Here
Book Description
Who are the people of the Ryukyu Islands? How could they survive and prosper on small, isolated islands? How did the independent Ryukyu Kingdom become a major player in East Asian medieval trade? Ancient Ryukyu explores 30,000 years of human occupation in the Ryukyu Islands, from the earliest human presence in the region up to A.D. 1609 and the emergence of the Ryukyu Kingdom. It focuses on the unique geopolitical position of the islands, their environment, and the many human communities whose historical activities can be discerned. Drawing on the impressive work of dozens of local archaeologists who have brought the islands’ early history to life, Richard Pearson describes explorers and sojourners and colonists who arrived thousands of years ago, and their ancient trade links to Japan, Korea, and China. Through a case study focused on the medieval castles and palaces of the Ryukyu Kingdom, he demonstrates the vigorous trade taking place in East Asia before the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century A.D. He also shows how archaeologists have sought to reconstruct monuments on Okinawa Island that were obliterated in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Through analysis of work completed at about 120 sites described in dozens of rare Japanese government reports with limited circulation, Pearson is able to show that many modern features of the culture, politics, and economy of the Ryukyu Islands have very deep roots. The book concludes with a discussion of aspects of Ryukyu archaeology that are significant for world archaeology and the archaeology of islands. Ancient Ryukyu offers an up-to-date treatment of an unusually long span of human history in the Ryukyu Islands and will become the definitive work in English on the premodern era.
Author: Gregory Smits
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824884272
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Why do Ryukyu’s official histories locate the origins of its early dynastic founders in Iheya and Izena, small islands located northwest of Okinawa? Why did the Ming court extend favorable trade terms to Ryukyuan rulers? What was the nature of Okinawa’s enigmatic principalities, Sannan, Chūzan, and Hokuzan? When and how did the Ryukyu islands become united under a single ruler? Was this Ryukyuan state an empire, why did it go to war with the powerful Japanese domain of Satsuma in 1609, and what actually happened during that war? Answers to these and other key questions concerning early Ryukyuan history can be found in this bold reappraisal by a leading authority on the subject. Conventional portrayals of early Ryukyu are based on official histories written between 1650 and 1750. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Gregory Smits makes extensive use of scholarship in archaeology and anthropology and leverages unconventional sources such as the Omoro sōshi (a collection of ancient songs) to present a fundamental rethinking of early Ryukyu. Instead of treating Ryukyu as a natural, self-contained cultural or political community, he examines it as part of a maritime network extending from coastal Korea to the islands of Tsushima and Iki, along the western shore of Kyushu, and through the Ryukyu Arc to coastal China. Smits asserts that Ryukyuan culture did not spring from the soil of Okinawa: He highlights Ryukyu’s northern roots and the role of wakō (pirate-merchant seafarers) in the formation of power centers throughout the islands, uncovering their close historical connections with the coastal areas of western Japan and Korea. Unlike conventional Ryukyuan histories that open with Okinawa, Maritime Ryukyu starts with the northern island of Kikai, an international crossroads during the eleventh century. It also focuses on other important but often overlooked territories such as the Tokara islands and Kumejima, in addition to bringing the northern and southern Ryukyu islands into a story that all too often centers almost exclusively on Okinawa. Readers interested in the history of the Ryukyu islands, premodern Japan, and East Asia, as well as maritime history, will welcome this original and persuasive volume.
Author: Choki Motobu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
The book "My Art and Skill of Karate" presents the technical knowledge and original accounts imparted by famed Okinawa karate master Motobu Chōki (1870-1944). This translation was created in close cooperation with the author's grandson, Motobu Naoki sensei. It also includes a congratulatory address by the author's son, Motobu Chōsei sensei, the current head of the school. Moreover, this year marks the 150th anniversary of Motobu Chōki's birth. In other words, three generations of the Motobu family were involved in this new translation, connecting the history and tradition of karate from the 19th to 21th century.In addition to accounts about old-time karate masters in Okinawa, the work features thirty-four photos of Motobu performing Naihanchi Shodan, including written descriptions. Moreover, it includes twenty kumite with pictures and descriptions as well as five pictures of how to use the makiwara.What makes it even more unique is that the existence of the book was unknown until the 1980s, when the wife of a deceased student sent the book to Motobu Chōki's son, Chōsei. Until today this edition remains the only known original edition in existence, and it provided the basis for this original translation. This work has to be considered one of the most important sources to assess and interpret karate.
Author: Gregory Smits
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824898206
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
The Ryukyu islands have been inhabited by humans for over 30,000 years. Their modern population, however, did not come from stone-age ancestors, nor did distinctive forms of Ryukyuan culture, such as sacred groves or stone-walled castles, emerge from within the islands. Instead, different groups of people lived in the Ryukyu islands at various points in history. Starting with the earliest extant human remains and ending with the formation of a centralized state in the early 1500s, Early Ryukyuan History traces the people, culture, technologies, goods, and networks that entered different parts of Ryukyu over time. In the process, it synthesizes decades of research in archaeology and anthropology, recent advances in genetic evidence, and conventional documentary sources to advance a new model for the early development of the Ryukyu islands, thoroughly rewriting early Ryukyuan history. Taking a multidisciplinary approach grounded in archaeology, this resource presents an updated framework for understanding early Ryukyu along with a new narrative featuring a fascinating cast of characters. Linked by the ocean into the East China Sea, the early Ryukyu islands were never isolated. People and technologies arrived from across the sea and became the prime movers of early Ryukyuan society. The most consequential of these external agents were waves of immigrants, mainly from the Japanese islands, who settled the Ryukyu islands during the eleventh and twelfth centuries and replaced the islands’ previous Jōmon population. While the physical environment of the Ryukyu islands was not conducive to cereal agriculture, the islands were well situated for trading and raiding, and trade became the driving force behind societal development. In Early Ryukyuan History, Gregory Smits reappraises the most fundamental questions and topics in early Ryukyuan history, providing new models of migration and settlement, regional trade, political geography, warfare, and state formation.
Author: Patrick Heinrich
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501510711
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 734
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Book Description
The UNESCO atlas on endangered languages recognizes the Ryukyuan languages as constituting languages in their own right. This represents a dramatic shift in the ontology of Japan’s linguistic make-up. Ryukyuan linguistics needs to be established as an independent field of study with its own research agenda and objects. This handbook delineates that the UNESCO classification is now well established and adequate. Linguists working on the Ryukyuan languages are well advised to refute the ontological status of the Ryukyuan languages as dialects. The Ryukyuan languages constitute a branch of the Japonic language family, which consists of five unroofed Abstand (language by distance) languages.The Handbook of Ryukyuan Languages provides for the most appropriate and up-to-date answers pertaining to Ryukyuan language structures and use, and the ways in which these languages relate to Ryukyuan society and history. It comprises 33 chapters, written by the leading experts of Ryukyuan languages. Each chapter delineates the boundaries and the research history of the field it addresses, comprises the most important and representative information.
Author: Mamoru Akamine
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824855205
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
This English translation of a key work by one of Okinawa’s most respected historians, Mamoru Akamine, provides a compelling new picture of the role played by the Ryukyu Kingdom in the history of East Asia. Okinawa Island, from which the present-day Japanese prefecture derives its name, is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, an archipelago that stretches between Japan and Taiwan. In the present volume, Akamine chronicles the rise of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it played a major part in East Asian trade and diplomacy. Then Ryukyu was indeed the cornerstone in a vibrant East Asian trade sphere centered on Ming China, linking what we now call Japan, Korea, and China to Southeast Asia. With historical and cultural connections to both Japan and China, Ryukyu also mediated diplomatically between the two nations, whose leaders more often than not refused to deal with each other directly. But eventually the kingdom became a victim of its own success. Political developments in China and Japan starting in the sixteenth century brought great changes to the region, and in 1609 Ryukyu was invaded by Satsuma, Japan’s southernmost domain. The China-Japan geopolitical rivalry would in time be acted out within Ryukyu itself, as one faction strove to maintain ties with China while another supported union with rapidly modernizing Japan. Throughout the work Akamine’s approach to Ryukyu history is distinguished by his expert use of Chinese and Korean sources, which allows him to examine events from several different angles. This contributes to a broad, sweeping narrative, revealing an East Asia made up of many shifting and interrelated parts—not just nation states pursuing their own interests. Akamine’s facility with Chinese texts in particular uncovers telling details that add considerably to the historical record. His meticulous account of one of Ryukyu’s tribute missions to China, for example, or the role of feng shui in the design of Shuri Castle, the royal and administrative center of the kingdom, is detailed without being pedantic. As a result, readers will come away with a broader, more informed understanding of Ryukyu’s significance in the region and the complexity of its relations with its neighbors.
Author: Andreas Quast
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781512229424
Category : Martial arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Based on his acclaimed previous studies, the author here presents a synopsis of the development of Ryukyu martial arts. The events described herein are all real, that is, they are all historical. Strolling along the chronology of martial arts of Ryukyu provenance, a large number of verified events are not only detailed, but also decorated with dozens of precious illustrations. As such "A Stroll Along Ryukyu Martial Arts History" is for martial arts practitioners as much as it is for aficionados of history and Asia. It simply provides a pristine ground to stand on for the practitioner who wishes to understand the primordial origins of Ryukyu martial arts. For those who read "Karate 1.0" this new book here provides a synopsis of Karate 1.0 plus the "chronology (Part VII)" without significant changes. It is an easier read without all the reasoning and footnotes, but instead with 80 illustrations to make it more suitable for the general public, and not only academic people.
Author: United States. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ryukyu Islands
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
Author: Arne Røkkum
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134253648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
Despite their small area, the southern islands of Japan can be seen as stepping stones towards a more nuanced view of cultural osmosis between Japan and the outside world. This book presents an ethnographic portrayal of the people of the Southern Ryukyu Islands and their world. In particular it explores the mind of the islanders, their relationship with the natural world, their social relationships, and the rituals which represent and give expression to these relationships. Based on extensive original research, including participant observation, the book allows the authentic voices of the Ryukyu Island worlds to speak for themselves as well as setting the work in the wider context of anthropology, Japanese Studies and Pacific Island studies.
Author: George H. Kerr
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462901840
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 596
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Book Description
"[Okinawa: The History of an Island People is] a book that answers the questions of the curious layman, satisfies the standards of critical scholarship, and is readable and fascinating besides. --American Historical Review"
