Ryukyu Domain

The Ryukyu Domain (琉球藩, Ryūkyū han) was a short-lived <a href="/facts/Han_system/8bs4GQur">domain</a> of the <a href="/facts/Empire_of_Japan/gMpNKg2W">Empire of Japan</a>, lasting from 1872 to 1879, and simultaneously a <a href="/facts/Tributary_system_of_China/s8q6QELz">tributary state</a> of the <a href="/facts/Qing_dynasty/5j6r4p5m">Qing Empire</a>, until 1875, before being fully incorporated into Japan as the current <a href="/facts/Okinawa_Prefecture/2PNlxv5K">Okinawa Prefecture</a> and other islands at the Pacific edge of the <a href="/facts/East_China_Sea/LpC6wxIu">East China Sea</a>.
When the domain was created in 1872, Japan's feudal <a href="/facts/Han_system/8bs4GQur">han system</a> had developed in unique ways. The domain was a <a href="/facts/Politics/1gDNy3RP">political</a> and <a href="/facts/Economics/HYctA2Dn">economic</a> abstraction based on periodic <a href="/facts/Cadastral/HlLvEjcg">cadastral</a> surveys and projected agricultural yields. In other words, the domain was defined in terms of <a href="/facts/Kokudaka/a6FFQDcz">kokudaka</a>, not land area. This was different from the <a href="/facts/Feudalism/WCK7l9gA">feudalism</a> of the West.

Ryukyu Domain open-in-new

Ryukyu Domain