Ryukyuan missions to Edo

Over the course of Japan's Edo period, the Ryūkyū Kingdom sent eighteen missions to Edo (琉球江戸上り, ryūkyū edo nobori^?, "lit. 'the going up of Ryūkyū to Edo'), the capital of Tokugawa Japan. The unique pattern of these diplomatic exchanges evolved from models established by the Chinese, but without denoting any predetermined relationship to China or to the Chinese world order. The Kingdom became a vassal to the Japanese feudal domain (han) of Satsuma following Satsuma's 1609 invasion of Ryūkyū, and as such were expected to pay tribute to the shogunate; the missions also served as a great source of prestige for Satsuma, the only han to claim any foreign polity, let alone a kingdom, as its vassal.

Royal princes or top-ranking officials in the royal government served as chief envoys, and were accompanied by merchants, craftsmen, scholars, and other government officials as they journeyed first by sea to the Ryūkyū-kan (琉球館) in Kagoshima, an institution which served a role similar to a consulate for the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and then on by land to Edo. Missions traveled as a part of Satsuma's regular missions to Edo under the sankin kōtai system, the Ryūkyūan envoys and their entourage considerably outnumbered by the Japanese envoys and entourage from Satsuma, and were housed in the Shimazu clan residences during their time in Edo. Even so, they were still regarded as diplomatic missions from a foreign country. This was reflected in the envoys' reception in Edo, in the associated rituals and meetings. Ryūkyū was, however, regarded as being quite low in the hierarchy of foreign countries in the shogunate's world view. While the Ryūkyūan embassies paralleled in many ways those sent by Joseon Dynasty Korea in the same period, various aspects of the Ryūkyūan envoys' reception reflected their lower status in the shogunate's view. Since envoys from both Korea and Ryūkyū were not equals with the shogun, intermediaries represented the shogunate in meetings with the envoys; while Korean envoys met with members of various high-ranking families (the kōke), envoys from Ryūkyū were met by a lower-ranking master of ceremonies, the sōshaban

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