Manuscript on paper, entitled at beginning of text: "Ryūkyū heishi ki" 琉球聘使記 ["Record of the Envoys from Ryūkyū"] -

12 folding leaves. 8vo (265 x 173 mm.), orig. wrappers with orig. title slip, new stitching. [Japan:] [after 1710]. A copy of this record of an Okinawan embassy to Edo in 1710, the largest such mission sent to Japan up until that time from the smaller island nation. The text of our manuscript was never printed as a stand-alone work and is rare today. "Modern scholarship is divided on the question of the status of Ryukyu. 'The status of the Ryukyu kingdom in early modern times was puzzling not only to Western observers,' writes Robert Sakai, 'but also to Japanese.' For even while the Ryukyuan king paid tribute to Satsuma and to Edo, he also continued to pay tribute to the Ming and Ch'ing thrones. He might then be considered as a subvassal in the Tokugawa polity, or as a foreign prince in dual vassalage." With the Tokugawa shogunate's approval, Satsuma domain had invaded Ryūkyū in 1609, making it a vassal of the domain. However, this did not mean that Ryūkyū "ceased to be a foreign country, or that relations between Naha and Edo ceased thereby to be foreign relations" (Ronald P. Toby, State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan, pp. 46-50). Ryūkyū regularly sent embassies to Edo to present tribute. Ogyū Sorai (1666-1728), a court Confucian philosopher and political economist, was one of the most influential thinkers of the Tokugawa period; his writings had a profound significance for Japanese culture. Ogyū describes in detail the make-up of the Ryūkyū mission sent to welcome the new shogun's succession. This mission set enhanced standards of dress and ceremonial and ambassadorial precedents. There are accounts of the gifts exchanged between the Japanese and Ryūkyū sides at the opening and subsequent ceremonies. The encounters appear to have been very cosmopolitan: Ogyū gives the lyrics to the songs performed during an audience with the shogunal authorities. Interestingly, the lyrics are in a kind of Chinese language with clear vernacular elements, and Ogyū's sound glosses to the characters make clear that the songs were sung in at least an approximation of vernacular Chinese. Ogyū also describes in detail the musical instruments used on this occasion. Fine copy; minor dampstaining and some worming, some of it carefully mended.