Ryūkyū Islands

The Ryūkyū Islands appear in the account of nineteenth-century Japan as a crucial conduit for outside trade. Through them, the southern Satsuma domain retained a degree of commercial autonomy that the Tokugawa shogunate, which sought to monopolize foreign trade and bar foreigners from the country, could not wholly eliminate.

A Route Around Shogunal Control

The Tokugawa family ruled Japan from 1600, with its shogun governing from Edo and the emperor relegated to a ceremonial role. The shogunate’s restrictions on trade and foreign contact formed part of a wider order in which feudal lords governed and taxed their own domains. Satsuma, however, remained relatively autonomous in the south and was allowed to trade independently with the outside world through the Ryūkyū Islands. This exception gave the domain access to commerce beyond the shogun’s tightly controlled channels.

Satsuma and the Meiji-era Upheaval

Satsuma’s independent connections mattered in the political realignment that preceded the overthrow of the shogunate. In 1867, Satsuma courtier Ōkubo Toshimichi joined leaders of the Chōshū domain in forming the Satcho Alliance, with Tosa and Aki already drawn into the coalition. The alliance’s stated appeal centered on the emperor’s displacement, but its leaders intended a broader transformation of Japan’s political and economic institutions. Satsuma’s room to maneuver—and its established access to external trade through the Ryūkyū Islands—belonged to the context in which its leaders could challenge the shogunate and envision a modern state.

Significance in the Book’s Comparison

The Ryūkyū Islands are mentioned briefly, but their role illustrates a larger point about political control and economic opportunity: central authority was not always complete, and local autonomy could preserve openings for commerce. In the book’s account, Satsuma’s exception contrasts with the shogunate’s broader restrictions and helps explain why the domains were not simply passive subjects of Tokugawa rule. The islands thus matter less as a separately described society than as the route that made Satsuma’s partial independence economically consequential.