Ryukyu Domain

Ryūkyū Domain
琉球藩
Domain of Japan
Tributary state of Qing China (until 1875)
1872–1879
Official seal of Ryūkyū Domain
Official seal

Ryukyu Domain included the southern-half of the Ryukyu Islands.
CapitalShuri Castle
Government
 • TypeMonarchy
Domain head 
• 1872–1879
Shō Tai
Sanshikan 
• 1872–1879
Urasoe Chōshō
• 1875–1879
Tomikawa Seikei
• 1877–1879
Yonabaru Ryōketsu
Historical eraMeiji period
• Established
1872
• Disestablished
1879
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Ryukyu Kingdom
Okinawa Prefecture
Today part ofOkinawa Prefecture

The Ryukyu Domain (琉球藩, Ryūkyū han) was a short-lived domain of the Empire of Japan, lasting from 1872 to 1879, before becoming the current Okinawa Prefecture and other islands[citation needed] at the Pacific edge of the East China Sea.

When the domain was created in 1872, Japan's feudal han system had developed in unique ways. The domain was a political and economic abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.[1] In other words, the domain was defined in terms of kokudaka, not land area.[2] This was different from the feudalism of the West.

  1. ^ Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser. (1987). The Bakufu in Japanese History, p. 150.
  2. ^ Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987). Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century, p. 18.