Sho Ko
Encyclopedia
was a king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
, who held the throne from 1804 to 1828, when he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Shō Iku. This was only the second time in the history of the kingdom that a king abdicated; the 1477 abdication of Shō Sen'i was the first.
It is said that towards the end of his reign, Shō Kō's "behavior became strange, unbalanced, and unpredictable." The Sanshikan
(the council of the top three elder royal advisors) appealed to the government of Japan's Satsuma Domain and, with Satsuma's approval, forced Shō Kō to abdicate in 1828 and to retire to the countryside. An envoy mission was prepared to formally inform Peking of the change in rulership, and a second royal manor was established in the countryside, to maintain the prestige and dignities appropriate to Shō Kō's status.
Historian George H. Kerr
suggests the possibility that Shō Kō did not in fact suffer from any mental illness, but rather contemplated radical actions such as seeking the kingdom's independence from Satsuma, to which it was a vassal tributary
, in the hopes that this would alleviate the intense economic difficulties faced by the kingdom. If this were the case, perhaps the Sanshikan feared that such action was too radical, and too risky, and felt the need to prevent the king from going through with it.
Ryukyu Kingdom
The Ryūkyū Kingdom was an independent kingdom which ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th century to the 19th century. The Kings of Ryūkyū unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan...
, who held the throne from 1804 to 1828, when he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Shō Iku. This was only the second time in the history of the kingdom that a king abdicated; the 1477 abdication of Shō Sen'i was the first.
It is said that towards the end of his reign, Shō Kō's "behavior became strange, unbalanced, and unpredictable." The Sanshikan
Sanshikan
The Sanshikan , or Council of Three, was a government body of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, which originally developed out of a council of regents.It emerged in 1556, when the young Shō Gen, who was mute, ascended to the throne of Ryūkyū...
(the council of the top three elder royal advisors) appealed to the government of Japan's Satsuma Domain and, with Satsuma's approval, forced Shō Kō to abdicate in 1828 and to retire to the countryside. An envoy mission was prepared to formally inform Peking of the change in rulership, and a second royal manor was established in the countryside, to maintain the prestige and dignities appropriate to Shō Kō's status.
Historian George H. Kerr
George H. Kerr
George H. Kerr , also known in Taiwan as 葛超智 , was a United States diplomat during World War II, and in later years he was an author and an academic...
suggests the possibility that Shō Kō did not in fact suffer from any mental illness, but rather contemplated radical actions such as seeking the kingdom's independence from Satsuma, to which it was a vassal tributary
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
, in the hopes that this would alleviate the intense economic difficulties faced by the kingdom. If this were the case, perhaps the Sanshikan feared that such action was too radical, and too risky, and felt the need to prevent the king from going through with it.