This collection gathers all the primary texts, some rare or hitherto unpublished, written on Ryukyu by Western visitors, scholars, and missionaries from the 16th century to the eve of World War II. This first set of five volumes covers the ...

This book presents an ethnographic portrayal of the people of the Southern Ryukyu Islands and their world.

In the present volume, Akamine chronicles the rise of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it played a major part in East Asian trade and diplomacy.

It developed its own standard language, the Shuri language (or dialect) with roots in the Heian era. It also developed its own value system quite different of what we consider the 'Japanese' value pattern.

Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands is the first comprehensive travel guide to the 150 sub-tropical island chain that stretches across 600 miles from Japan to Taiwan. These are some of the most stunningly beautiful islands in the world!

Details the history of the Ryukyu Islands before 1945: Pre-history, the period of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Satsuma Invasion, the transition from Kingdom to Province, assimilation and WWII.