About 650 kilometers off the coast of Zhejiang and Fujian in China, and an archipelago stretching for more than 1,000 kilometers, it is northeast-southwest oriented, extending to only 108 kilometers away from China's Taiwan Island, and the arc of the islands across the sea from the Chinese mainland is the Ryukyu Islands. More than a hundred years ago, there was an even older and more distant identity in this land- the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had long been a vassal state of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, becoming a transit point for trade in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, known as the "Jinliang of All Nations".
The Ryukyu Islands are located on the eastern outskirts of the East China Sea, bordering the Japanese archipelago of Kyushu Island to the north and Taiwan Island to the south, across the sea from Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.
The Ryukyu Islands across the sea
The Ryukyu Islands are located on the eastern outskirts of the East China Sea, bordering the Japanese archipelago of Kyushu to the north and Taiwan Island of China to the south, and are the dividing line between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. From northeast to southwest, the Ryukyu Islands are distributed from the Osumi Islands, the Togara Islands, the Amami Islands, the Daito Islands, the Okinawa Islands and the Senjima Islands, with a total of more than 60 inhabited islands and more than 400 unnamed small islands, covering an area of about 4,600 square kilometers. However, before 1871, the territory of the Ryukyu Kingdom did not include the Osumi Islands and the Tugala Islands, but from Amami Oshima Island in the north, to Kikai Island in the east, to Wachema Island in the south, and to Naguni Island in the west.
From northeast to southwest, the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Osumi Islands, the Togara Islands, the Amami Islands, the Daito Islands, the Okinawa Islands, and the Senjima Islands.
The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical oceanic monsoon climate with an annual precipitation of up to 2000-3000 mm and abundant rainfall, but they are on the typhoon path of the northwest Pacific Ocean and are basically hit by typhoons every year. Among the many islands, the larger islands, such as Okinawa Island ( 1204 km2 ) and the second largest Amami Island ( 712 km2 km² ) , are volcanic islands with mountainous distribution, the highest point being Miyanoura Mt. (1935 meters above sea level) on Yakushima Island in the Osumi Islands; other smaller islands, such as The SenjiMa Islands, are coral islands with flat terrain.
The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical oceanic monsoon climate with an annual precipitation of up to 2000-3000 mm and abundant rainfall.
Among the many islands, the larger islands, such as Okinawa and Amami Oshima, are volcanic islands with mountainous distributions.
Okinawa has many sandy beaches and is a tourist mecca. The picture shows Japanese actress Feng Zelina at the okinawa beach.
The formation of this island arc structure in the Ryukyu Islands is closely related to plate movement. In the Late Mesozoic Era about 100 million years ago, the Philippine Plate (that is, the sub-plate of the Pacific Plate) subducted in a near-east-west direction towards the Eurasian Plate, causing the mantle on the eastern edge of the Asian continent to rise and gradually form an East Asian continental rift valley that was nearly north-south, and the present Songliao Basin, the Lower Liao River and the North China Depression were the axis of the original rift valley.
The formation of this island arc structure in the Ryukyu Islands is closely related to plate movement.
The edges of the scattered continents drifted toward the Pacific Ocean to become islands, as did the Ryukyu Islands, the Japanese Archipelago, and even the Kuril Islands.
Then, about 28-16 million years ago, with the further subduction of the oceanic plate and the further expansion of the continental rift valley, the eastern edge of Asia was ruptured and dispersed, and the rupture formed some faults or rift valleys that were closely parallel to the East Asian continental rift valley, such as the Fumi (Fushun-Mishan) fault, which constituted the East Asian continental rift valley system; while the scattered continental edge drifted towards the Pacific Ocean into islands, and the Ryukyu Islands, the Japanese Archipelago, and even the Kuril Islands were formed in this way. The island arc is the name given to the upper archipelago in the plate theory.
Influenced by the powerful Kuroshio (i.e., the Japanese Warm Current), the Ryukyu Islands are rich in offshore fisheries. The picture shows Kuroshio.
Influenced by the powerful Kuroshio (i.e., the Japanese Warm Current), the Ryukyu Islands are rich in offshore fisheries and are part of the northwest Pacific Fishing Area.
Due to their location between the marginal sea and the deep ocean, affected by the powerful Kuroshio (i.e., the Japanese Warm Current), the Ryukyu Islands are rich in offshore fishery resources and are part of the fishing area in the northwest Pacific Ocean, especially warm current fish such as squid, squid, saury, saury and other warm current fish. However, more important than the fishery resources, the Ryukyu Islands are their special geographical location, which gives the Ryukyu an innate advantage as a transit point for trade in Northeast asia and Southeast Asia.
In the 12th century, the Ryukyu Islands appeared in the three kingdoms of Nanshan, Zhongshan and Beishan, and from 1372 onwards, Ryukyu became a vassal state of China and paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty
The imprint of Chinese civilization in Ryukyu culture
Unlike other remote overseas islands, the Ryukyu Islands appeared in the 12th century in the three kingdoms of Nanshan, Zhongshan and Beishan, and from 1372 onwards, Ryukyu became a vassal state of China, paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and then the Ming and Qing dynasties repeatedly crowned the Ryukyu King, and Ryukyu also relied on the pivotal position between tributary trade and Sino-Japanese trade, creating a glorious era of East Asian navigation. It is precisely because of this 600-year-long in-depth exchange that the cultural genes of Ryukyu have deeply branded the Chinese civilization and have influenced it to this day.
The birthplace of Kume Village, the stone stele is carved with the thirty-six surnames of the Min people who migrated here.
The largest local surname in Kaneshiro-cho, Naha City, "Kinjo", was partly changed from the Chinese surname of "Qin", and the father of the Japanese movie star Takeshi Kaneshiro was a Ryukyuan.
Ryukyu received Chinese cultural baptism can be traced back to 1392, when the Ming Dynasty Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the Ryukyu envoys came to China to sail the sea difficulties, he specially gave the 36 surnames of the Min people who were good at shipbuilding to move to Kume Village in Ryukyu to teach navigation technology, and then Chinese became the official language of Ryukyu, Chinese characters became the standard of official documents, and its traditional costume appearance was also very similar to Hanfu, the largest local surname "Jincheng" in Jincheng Town, Naha City, Okinawa Island, it is said that some of it was changed from the Chinese "Qin" surname. The father of the Japanese movie star Takeshi Kaneshiro is a Ryukyu, and there are very few such surnames on the Japanese main island.
Ryukyu also paid special respect to Confucianism, respect confucius and other Confucian saints, and many Confucian masters emerged, pictured as the southernmost Confucius temple in Japan: the Most Holy Temple in Kume Village, Okinawa
Ryukyu also paid special respect to Confucianism, respect confucius and other Confucian sages, and successively emerged Xiang Xiangxian (Hakata According to Si Chaoxiu), Cai Wen (Gu Zhitou Pro Fang Wenruo), Cheng Shunze (MingHu Relative Fang Pet Wen) and other Confucian scholars, Ryukyu Confucianism was greatly developed in the 18th century. Of course, there are also Fengshiye and Shi Dangdang imported from Fujian, as well as Chinese food. Because the Ryukyu Islands are frequent transit places for typhoons, the Ryukyu people often place stone dares at the gate, place wind lions on the roof, and the town wind stops to ensure peace, and now lion cultures such as stone lions and lion dances have become important cultural symbols in Ryukyu.
Since the Ryukyu Islands are frequent transit areas for typhoons, the Ryukyuan people often place stone dangdang at the gate and the wind lion on the roof.
Stir-fried pork with bitter melon in a common Chinese home-cooked dish in Ryukyu.
Only on the contrary, in the interior of Fujian, but due to the transformation of the old city and other reasons, the wind lion master has been difficult to find, and it only exists in some ancient ancestral halls, which is lamentable. There is also the Ryukyu three-stringed instrument beloved by the Ryukyuan people, whose predecessor is the Chinese three-string, which is not only very close in appearance, but also has the same magic in playing. In terms of food culture, although the Ryukyu Islands are rich in seafood, they are particularly fond of pork, mutton and vegetables, and the local traditional dishes are full of the atmosphere of Fujian cuisine regardless of style, method and taste, such as common curd milk, bitter melon stir-fried meat, and Ryukyu's representative "Luo ham", which is almost the same as the practice and taste of Fuzhou elbow.
Modeled after the Ryukyu Shinto created by Japanese Shintoism, the legendary god AmoMiku is the same as the Amaterasu god in Japanese mythology
The Enbiya Taketake Stone Gate is a Japanese-style shrine where the Ryukyu kings worship when they go out, which is very different from the scarlet color of Shurijo Castle as a whole.
The imprint of Japanese culture in Ryukyu culture
However, since 1879, when Japan completed the so-called "Ryukyu Punishment" by force, forcibly annexed Ryukyu, and the Ryukyu Kingdom was replaced by "Okinawa Prefecture", the influence of Japanese art and religious beliefs increased greatly, such as the Ryukyu Shinto created by Japanese Shintoism, whose legendary Amo Miku was the same as the Amaterasu God in Japanese mythology, as well as noh dramas and wild words that referred to traditional Japanese arts. In addition, in terms of architectural style, Bolan also developed the strengths of China and Japan, forming the style of Ryukyu itself.
Shurijo Castle (the ruins of the capital of the ancient Ryukyu Kingdom, built in the 14th century), which became a world cultural heritage site in 2000, is a palace building of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Shurijo Castle's architectural style blends Chinese and Japanese castle-building cultures, as well as the Ryukyu native stone masonry technology, and has a high cultural and historical value.
There is no tall Japanese castle tower in the inner city, and the main hall faces the wide imperial court square, with north and south halls on both sides, which is a typical Chinese palace architectural pattern.
The most prominent example is Shurijo Castle (the ruins of the capital of the ancient Ryukyu Kingdom, which was built in the 14th century), which became a world cultural heritage in 2000, which is the palace building of the Ryukyu Kingdom, where the king handles state affairs, receives envoys and holds celebrations, and the architectural style is a fusion of Chinese and Japanese castle-building culture, as well as the superb stone masonry technology of the Ryukyu region, which has high cultural and historical value. Its layout is divided into inner castle and outer castle, and the city wall runs along the mountain, which is quite similar to the castle in the Warring States period of Japan; but in the city, there is no tall Japanese castle tower, and the main hall faces the wide imperial court square, with north and south halls on both sides, which is a typical Chinese palace architectural pattern.
The whole adopts the vermilion of Chinese architecture, and the decorative elements of the four-clawed python pattern (the size of the king of the clan) are widely used, but the gate of the main hall is in the shape of the Japanese Tang Dynasty.
There are three plaques hanging in the main hall, in the middle of which is the "Zhongshan Shitu" of the Kangxi Imperial Book, flanked by the "Jirui Qiuyang" given by the Yongzheng Emperor and the "Yongzuo Yingru" given by the Qianlong Imperial Gift.
Inside the main hall, there are three plaques hanging above the king's throne, in the middle is the "Zhongshan Shitu" of the Kangxi Imperial Book, flanked by the two plaques of "Jirui Qiuyang" given by the Yongzheng Emperor and the "Yongzuo Ying" given by the Qianlong Emperor. And the overall use of Chinese architecture of the vermilion, and widely used four-clawed python pattern (the size of the king of the domain) decorative elements, but the main hall of the gate and roof is the Japanese Tang dynasty style. The north hall with the two sides of the hall is built in Chinese style, while the south hall is Japanese inside and out. According to sources, after the Ryukyu Kingdom was controlled by the Japanese Satsuma Domain in 1609, it still paid tribute to China, the north hall was used to welcome Chinese envoys, and the south hall was used to meet with the envoys of the Satsuma domain.
The nested urn pattern of the gate and the city wall of the ancient city is closer to the structural concept of the Chinese city pool.
Of course, in addition to Shurijo Castle, there is also a happy ancient city and Uraso ancient city. The nested urn pattern of the city gate and the city wall is closer to the structural concept of chinese cities, and a stone stele in the ancient city is engraved with the words "Feng Ji Jin Daoguang Twenty-three Years", "Bong Ji Jin" in Japanese means to offer sacrifices and money, and Dao Guang refers to the Daoguang Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. A stone stele appears at the same time in Japanese expression + Chinese era number, which is emotional.
Adapted from the real experience of Desmond Dawes, a high-class military doctor in World War II, Hacksaw Ridge tells the legend of him who saved 75 comrades in the Battle of Okinawa.
The Hacksaw Ridge cliff in the movie "Hacksaw Ridge" is actually Maeda Highlands, where Urasso Ancient City is located.
Maeda Heights, where Urasoe's ancient city is located, is the famous Hacksaw Ridge in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II.
As for Urasoe Castle, it is also a World Heritage Site, and the Maeda Highlands itself is the famous Hacksaw Ridge in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. However, locals do not shy away from this history, and there is also an introduction panel for the movie "Hacksaw Ridge" on the highlands, telling the true story of the legendary military doctor Desmond Dawes who refused to carry weapons to the battlefield and saved 75 comrades with his bare hands in the Battle of Okinawa. But now the ruins of bunkers and underground tunnels are full of herbs.
Overlooking the island of Okinawa
This is the Ryukyu Islands, a place that doesn't look too much like Japan and doesn't look too much like China. If you can get a glimpse here, you will feel that this statement is not false.
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