Editing Ryukyu Kingdom (section)

===Tributary relations===
[[File:Ryukyu Tribute Ship Folding Screen Kyoto University Museum.png|thumb|Ryukyu Tribute Ship [[folding screen]] (circa 1830)]]
[[File:Ryukyu_1832.JPG|thumb|An 1832 [[Ryukyuan missions to Edo|Ryukyuan mission to Edo]], Japan; 98 people with a music band and officials]]
[[File:Traditional clothes of Ryukyu.jpg|thumb|Traditional Ryukyuan clothes in late period, which were much closer to the Japanese [[kimono]]]]
In 1655, tribute relations between Ryukyu and [[Qing dynasty]] (the China's dynasty that followed Ming after 1644) were formally approved by the shogunate. This was seen to be justified, in part, because of the desire to avoid giving Qing any reason for military action against Japan.<ref name="hideyoshi"/>

Since Ming China prohibited trade with Japan, the Satsuma domain, with the blessing of the Tokugawa shogunate, used the trade relations of the kingdom to continue to maintain trade relations with China. Considering that Japan had previously severed ties with most European countries except [[Dutch East India Company|the Dutch]], such trade relations proved especially crucial to both the Tokugawa shogunate and Satsuma domain, which would use its power and influence, gained in this way, to help overthrow the shogunate in the 1860s.<ref name="Sakai"/>

The Ryukyuan king was a vassal of the Satsuma ''daimyō'', after Shimazu's Ryukyu invasion in 1609, the Satsuma Clan established a governmental office's branch known as ''Zaibankaiya'' (在番仮屋) or ''Ufukaiya'' (大仮屋) at Shuri in 1628, and became the base of Ryukyu domination for 250 years, until 1872.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Satsuma clan of Japan maintained a local office charged with governing Ryukyu. |date=29 June 2018 |url=https://www.naha-contentsdb.jp/en/spot/792 |publisher=Naha City Economic and Tourism Department Tourism Division |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref> The Satsuma Domain's residents can be roughly compared to a European [[Resident minister|resident]] in a protectorate.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nakahara Zenshu: Character and Weapons of the Ryukyu Kingdom |url=https://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=3857 |website=Ryukyu Bugei 琉球武芸 |access-date=8 April 2015}}</ref> However, the kingdom was not considered as part of any ''[[Han (administrative division)|han]]'' (fief): up until the formal annexation of the islands and abolition of the kingdom in 1879, the Ryukyus were not truly considered ''[[de jure]]'' part of Edo Japan. Though technically under the control of Satsuma, Ryukyu was given a great degree of autonomy, to best serve the interests of the Satsuma ''daimyō'' and those of the shogunate, in trading with China.<ref name="Sakai">{{cite journal |last1=K. Sakai |first1=Robert |title=The Satsuma-Ryukyu Trade and the Tokugawa Seclusion Policy |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |date=1964 |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=391–403 |doi=10.2307/2050758 |jstor=2050758 |s2cid=162751444 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/satsumaryukyu-trade-and-the-tokugawa-seclusion-policy/EC21243D228DAA2B626385136ED45967 |access-date=23 March 2011|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Ryukyu was a tributary state of China, and since Japan had no formal diplomatic relations with China, it was essential that China not realize that Ryukyu was controlled by Japan. Thus, Satsuma—and the shogunate—was obliged to be mostly hands-off in terms of not visibly or forcibly occupying Ryukyu or controlling the policies and laws there. The situation benefited all three parties involved—the Ryukyu royal government, the Satsuma ''daimyō'', and the shogunate—to make Ryukyu seem as much a distinctive and foreign country as possible. Japanese were prohibited from visiting Ryukyu without shogunal permission, and the Ryukyuans were forbidden from adopting Japanese names, clothes, or customs. They were even forbidden from divulging their knowledge of the Japanese language during their trips to Edo; the Shimazu family, ''daimyōs'' of Satsuma, gained great prestige by putting on a show of parading the King, officials, and other people of Ryukyu to and through Edo. As the only ''han'' to have a king and an entire kingdom as vassals, Satsuma gained significantly from Ryukyu's exoticness, reinforcing that it was an entirely separate kingdom.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

According to statements by [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] imperial official [[Li Hongzhang]] in a meeting with [[Ulysses S. Grant]], China had a special relationship with the island and the Ryukyu had paid tribute to China for hundreds of years, and the Chinese reserved certain trade rights for them in an amicable and beneficial relationship.<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3zBLjHeAGB0C&pg=PA165 |title= The Papers | first =Ulysses Simpson | last = Grant | editor-first = John Y | editor-last = Simon | volume= 29: 1 October 1878 – 30 September 1880 |year= 2008 | publisher = SIU Press, Ulysses S. Grant Association|edition=illustrated|isbn=978-0-8093-2775-1|page=165|access-date= 11 January 2011}}</ref> Japan ordered tributary relations to end in 1875 after the tribute mission of 1874 was perceived as a show of submission to China.{{Sfn | Kerr | 1953 | p = 366–367}}