The Loochoo Islands

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE WASON CHINESE COLLECTION Date Due WtI*"! ^^HW~ Cornell University Library OS 895.R6L43 The Loochoo islands / 3 1924 023 514 643 Cornell University Library \1 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023514643 w, w^ ,&. !~V? dKtoocbooTslands >^f ^ « « >v? mmk$ $* Cedfênworfl)» in«H« - - '«^'W ^,'v;? V-.'v^; "^ Photo. T. Hasegawa.] His Excellency Baron Naiâhara, Governor of the Looehoo Islands. LS^T- XLhc Xoocboo Jelanbs BY Charles S. Leavenworth, m.a. Professor of History, Imperial Nanyang College, Shanghai. SHANGHAI : ^"^ ^ [all rights reserved.] .i.iîHSioa CONTENTS. Page. Preface Preliminary I •General Description 7 History 13 Foreigners and the Loochoos 3° The People 33 Temples and Public Buildings 39 The Snakes 44 The Products and Commerce of the Islands 46 Government Institutions S6 Japanese Colonization in the Loochoos 59 Appendix I. —Memorandum prepared by the Chief Official of the Yayeyama Group 62 Appendix II. —Abstract of a Manuscript History of the Loochoos... 76 Appendix III. —Extracts from Chinese Ming Dynasty History ... 98 Appendix IV. —Extracts from the Chinese " Present Dynasty's Survey of Historical Facts " ir8 Appendix V. —Extracts from "Letters and Dispatches of Li Hung-chang" 159 Bibliography 92 Hieroglyphics , 96 Map Facing page 186 PREFACE. The Iôochoo Islands are a group belonging to Japan and lying off the coast of Eastern Asia, between Japan proper and Formosa. They are inhabited by an interesting race ofpeople; have had a long and occasionally eventful history , and possess a considerable volume of trade. The following pamphlet is the result of a visit to the islands in the summer of iÔ/j- when the author was very courteously given much information about the group by the Japanese officials there. In the appendices will be found translations of an abstract of a Loochooan manuscript history and extracts from Chinese histories dealing with the islands, as well as a detailed memorandum in regard to the Yayeyama group, furnished by Mr. Kurokawa, the chiefJapanese official in that group. The cordial thanks of the author are extended to Hon. James W. Davidson, of the A m,erican Consular Service, for kind letters of introduction and for much assistance in regard to the subject of the Loochoos ; to Hon. Charles B. Harris, American Consul at Nagasaki, for much kindness shown to him. ; to Hon. M. Odagiri, the Japanese Consul-General at Shanghai, for his kindness in providing intro- ductions ; and also to H. E. Baron Narahara, Governor of the Loochoos , H. E. Chikami, Governor of Kagoshima ken ; Mr. K. Kishimoto, Counsellor of Okinawa ken, and to a host of officials and others in the islands, whose unfailing courtesy, kindly interest, and rich stores of information enabled him to write these pages. His hearty thanks are also due to the proprietors of the EAST OF Asia Magazine for kind permission to republish in this form two articles contributed by him to that periodical , and to the Council of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for their kind consent to incorporate in the pamphlet a lecture given before that Society on the History of the Loochoo Islands. CHARLES S. LEA VENWORTH. Imperial Nanyang College, Shanghai, 20th June, ipo^. ^be ILoocboo Jslanbs. PRELIMINARY. The Loochoos are frequently mentioned in the newspapers and yet comparatively little is known by Europeans in regard to this interesting group of islands. When we learn from the weather reports in the daily paper that there is a depression south of the Loochoos or that the barometer is falling in the Loochoos, we have a vague idea that they lie somewhere down Formosa-way and then dismiss the subject from our minds. It has been the writer's privilege to spend nearly a month in travelling among these islands and the adjacent seas, and, although warned before he went that there was practically nothing to be seen there, he found, on the contrary, that there was very much of interest in this little-known quarter of the globe. The writer was provided with a most able and efficient interpreter, Mr. Shigio, of the American Consulate at Nagasaki, who accompanied him upon the journey and whose knowledge of Japanese official etiquette and commercial methods was in- valuable in travelling among the islands and in gathering information about their products and resources, and an interpreter who can faithfully translate jokes is a most valuable acquisition ! There is always a peculiar charm about islands anywhere, perhaps because we have first to pass through the perils of the ocean to reach them, and there is an attraction all their own about these " Pendent Globes " of the Eastern seas. Their history has been, in the main, uneventful, and yet interesting, because they have been stepping stones for the advance and retreat of two great Oriental Empires, China and Japan. Their people are a puzzle, as to their origin. Their manners, customs, and language offer a rich field of investigation to the ethnologist and the student of philology. The temples and other public- " THE LOOCHOO ISLANDS SAMISEN PLAYERS. buildings of the islands are worthy of note and their products and the fruits of their industries form a considerable volume of trade. Finally, the Government institutions yield material for an important study in Japanese colonization. In these articles, the writer has adopted the spelling " Loochoo " on the same principle that the words Foochow, Hankow, and Canton represent old-established ways of spelling, although they may not follow the exact orthography, which would make them uniform with the modern system of romaniza- tion. Furthermore, " Loochoo " is a foreign appellation, for the " " " ; people themselves say, Doochoo ; the Japanese, Ryukyu and the Chinese, " Liuch'iu." There are many different ways of PRELIMINARY spelling the name, from which it is possible to make a choice, for the writer has counted eighteen different methods in foreign books dealing with the subject, besides the one adopted. Thus we have, Lewchew, Luchu, Liu-kiu, Likiou, Lexio, Lequeo, Lequeyo, iLoqueo, Riu-ku, Riukiu, Liqueo, Lieoukiou, Lekeyo, Lieoo-Kieoo, Lieu-Kieu, Likeo, Lieuchieux, and Liquieux. A LOOCHOOAN ACTOR, There is a rather large bibliography of works dealing with the subject of the Loochoos. Most of the foreign books, however, 4 THE LOOCHOO ISLANDS describe the island of " Great Loochoo." The large northern islands, Oshima, is occasionally mentioned, but the southern islands have been rarely visited. The following is by no means an exhaustive list of sources but note ought to be made of some of the authorities:—In Vol. XXIII of that mine of information for workers on Far Eastern subjects, the " Lettres.Edifiantes et Curieuses," there is a description of the Loochoos by Fere Gaubil, which is based on the report of the Chinese Commissioner, Su Fao-koang. That fascinating, if somewhat untrustworthy writer, Klaproth, has also given us an account in Vol. 1 1 of the " M^moires relatifs a I'Asie." As a result of the visit of the British ships, Alceste and Lyra, to the islands in 1 8 16-7, we have accounts by Captain Basil Hall and John M'Leod, M.D. Coming to later times, there is a good deal of material about the Loochoos in the narrative of Ferry's Expedition to Japan. This description we owe to that celebrated wanderer and delightful writer, Bayard Taylor, who accompanied the American fleet to the islands. Dr. S. Wells Williams, also, whose name will always be indelibly inscribed in the roll of Western savants who have studied the Orient, went with the expedition as interpreter. He has left for us an account of " Folitical Intercourse between China and Lewchew" in the "Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society" (Dec. 1866) as well as earlier articles in the " Chinese Repository." Sir Ernest Satow, the present British Minister at Feking, is the author of the very first paper in the " Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," the title of which is, " Notes on Loochoos." Frofessor Basil Hall Chamberlain is the grandson of that Captain Basil Hall, who had already told the world about the islands in the account of the voyage of H.M.S. Alceste and Lyra. Frofessor Chamberlain was naturally much interested in the Loochoos. He paid them a visit and we have three articles on the subject in the "Transac- tions of the Asiatic Society of Japan " written by that authority qn "Things Japanese." His attention as a philologist has been PRELIMINAR Y § especially directed toward the Loochooan language. R. H. Brunton has a paper in Vol. IV of the same treasury of original articles on scholarly topics relating to the Japanese Empire. An important book has likewise been published in German, " Die Liu-kiu-insel " by Dr. Doederlein. A bibliography of the Loochoos can be found in Wenckstern's " Bibliography of the Japanese Empire." There is a manuscript history of the Loochoos kept in the archives of the prefectural office at Naha, the present capital, which should be included in our list of references. For a Japanese bibliography of the Loochoos, the reader, who is interested in the subject,- may be referred to one of the articles by Professor Chamberlain mentioned above, entitled " Contributions to a Bibliography of Loochoo." This gives a long list of works in the Japanese language. In Chinese, there are A number of books which deal with, or refer to, the islands. Among these may be noted the Journal of Su Pao-koang, a Chinese commissioner to the " Loochoos ; and A Dust of Pearl in the Industrial Sea" (to give the literal translation).

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