In the Okinawa Prefecture located in the far south of Japan, there existed an independent kingdom separate from Japan until the nineteenth century named the Ryūkyū Kingdom.

Humans have been living on Okinawa for thirty thousand years. Around the thirteenth century, rulers known as ajiemerged on different parts of Okinawa. The history of the Ryūkyū Kingdom began in 1429, when Shō Hashi (r. 1422-1439) united all the local clans. The Ryūkyū Kingdom benefited from being located in between Southeast and Northeast Asia, which helped it engage in intermediary trade and experience a golden age through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In the seventeenth century, the subsequent invasion from the Satsuma Hanfrom Kyūshū led to Japanese control over Ryūkyū. Ryūkyū faced strong political control from the shogunate of Japan, yet continued to strive toward developing a distinct culture of its own. The abolition of the HanSystem in 1872 under the Meiji government of Japan resulted in the incorporation of the area into the Ryūkyū Prefecture, followed by the renaming of the area as Okinawa, which is its name to this day.

This exhibition introduces the history and culture of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, which maintained a close relationship with the Joseon Dynasty throughout history. Precious treasures of the Ryūkyū Kingdom from the collections of various organizations representing Okinawa and national museums of Japan reveal the world of the Ryūkyū Kingdom that will provide us with an opportunity to understand the history of a neighbor across the sea and to look back at ourselves with greater insight.