琉球使節を通して見る幕末と明治初期の外交政策

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From the beginning of the seventeenth century, Ryukyu maintained an ambiguous political status of dual subordination to China and Japan. After centuries under this arrangement, Westerners arrived in East Asia, including in Ryukyu and Japan. In this new framework, the US, France, and Holland stipulated international treaties with Ryukyu, and in so doing, they recognized a certain degree of Ryukyuan sovereignty. These treaties were written in classical Chinese and were dated according to the Chinese calendar, without any reference to connections between Ryukyu and Japan.When annexing Ryukyu, the Meiji state’s crucial issue was eliminating Ryukyu’s dual subordination to China and Japan. During my research as a JSPS post-doctoral fellow, through the interpretation of multiple documentary sources I answered to a question that so far has not been duly taken into consideration: How was it possible that these treaties, which prove Ryukyuan sovereignty, were prevented by the Meiji state from showing Ryukyu’s independence? This is a significant passage in Ryukyuan, Japanese, Chinese history, as well as in the Western role of Ryukyu’s annexation, which had never been explained before. In this way, I clarified that Japan's incorporation of Ryukyu, as well as the process that superseded it, was as an integral part of both East Asian and world history.Thanks to my activities as a JSPS researcher, in 2015 I received the "1st Professor Josef Kreiner Hosei University Award for International Japanese Studies," and in 2016 I received the "38th Bunka Kyokai-Higa Shuncho Award.