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Research Papers on the Ryukyuan Embassy Processions in the City of Edo from Kanagawa University

A research group at the Research Center for Nonwritten Cultural Materials in the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folklore Culture at Kanagawa University (神奈川大学常民文化研究所非文字資料研究センター)  has published its joint research papers on “Pictopedia of Everyday life in Early Modern Japan Focusing on the Ryukyuan Embassy Processions in the city of Edo"

Image source: 『新板 琉球人行列記』阪巻・宝玲文庫（ハワイ大学所蔵）HW448, https://shimuchi.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/collection/sakamaki/hw44801, the University of the Ryukyus Library Ryukyu/Okinawa related Materials Digital Special Collection

Aim of the joint research project [http://himoji.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/english/outline/term4.html]

The early modern period in Japan was an “Age of Processions,” with sankin-kōtai (a feudal lord's alternate-year residence in Edo) and Korean and Ryukyuan missions traveling through the archipelago at regular intervals. The picture scrolls owned by the Kagoshima University Library entitled “Ryukyu-jin gyosho no zu (Picture of Ryukyuan People in Travel Attire)” and “Ryukyu-jin orai nigiwai no zu (Picture of the Bustling Streets of the Ryukyuan Procession)” are depictions of processions in 1850 for the sankin-kōtai of the lord of the Satsuma Domain and the Ryukyuan mission. The scrolls show the streets of Edo and Osaka that were on their route. The artist is a feudal retainer of the Satsuma Domain who accompanied the processions. These scrolls are good material for the analysis and research of “the state of processions and the urban spaces where the processions were received,” which were a part of the everyday lives of the people in early modern Japan. At the same time, they are valuable materials for the continued development of the research accumulated through the compilation of the Amami, Okinawa and South Kyushu editions of the “Joint Research and Compilation Project on “Pictopedia of Everyday life in Early Modern Japan Focusing on the Ryukyuan Embassy Processions in the city of Edo”

Source: 4. Joint Research and Compilation Project on “Pictopedia of Everyday life in Early Modern Japan Focusing on the Ryukyuan Embassy Processions in the city of Edo” at http://himoji.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/english/outline/term4.html

The research papers (in Japanese; in PDF) are available at Kanagawa University's repository. 

Preface by Professor OGURA Makoto is available at http://hdl.handle.net/10487/00016279.

Other papers in Japanese are available from the navigation below:

C0901 日本常民文化研究所　非文字資料研究センター08 研究報告書03 日本近世・生活絵引0016 琉球人行列と江戸編

In 2013 the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku) held a series of joint events, Parades and Processions of Edo Japan, from February 6-11, 2013. The presentation materials are available at https://guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/edoparades/symposium_papers