Shō Gen
King of Ryūkyū
Shō Gen (尚 元; 25 March 1528, 12 May 1572) was king of the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1556 to 1572. He was called "Gen, the mute."
01Life
The king required considerable support from the Sanshikan (Council of Three), the chief council of royal advisors. His reign marked the beginning of the council's demonstration of significantly greater effectiveness and efficiency than previously.
Shō Gen received his official investiture from the Ming Court in 1562, and received emissaries from the Shimazu clan of the Japanese province of Satsuma in 1570 and 1572. The Shimazu wished to establish some control over the Ryukyus, making them either a tributary or a vassal state. The kingdom resisted the Shimazu overtures, and a small punitive mission launched by the Shimazu created a small skirmish on the island of Amami Ōshima in 1571, although the Ryukyuans defeated them.
He was the second son of King Shō Sei, who he succeeded, and was succeeded in turn by his second son, Shō Ei.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Shō Gen”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- King Sho Gen.jpg by Sho Genko, 1748-1841, Public domain
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