Thread by @toranosukev

「先年打続江戸江御使者被差上候節万端神妙有之和朝之聞へ宜讃嘆為有之由頂上之仕合候。」

“... when envoys went up to Edo, everything was done with great care, and we hear that it received praise in the Yamato court; this is the pinnacle of things coming together (happiness).”

https://twitter.com/ENOgden/status/1328339314074415107

I can't say that I actually addressed this all that well in the diss, but the question being: what was the role of tradition, precedent, protocol, in shaping diplomatic ritual interactions in early modern East Asia?

In diplomatic history, most work focuses on the politics of the situation. But, when politics wasn't discussed and the relationship was barely changing but instead only ritually reaffirmed time and again, what about the importance of performing ritual properly?

The initial quote from 江戸立之時仰渡并応答之条々之写, an 1849 letter from the Ryukyu royal court to Ryukyuan ambassadors traveling to Edo the following year to meet with the Tokugawa shogun.

The original document, now lost, survives in the notebooks of 20th c scholar Kamakura Yoshitaro 鎌倉芳太郎, who hand-copied numerous Ryukyuan royal court records. The notebooks are viewable digitally at the Okinawa Pref. Univ. of the Arts website: ken.okigei.ac.jp/kamakura/

The Ryukyu Kingdom royal court prided itself on being 守禮之邦, a land of propriety. Performing ritual *correctly*, in accordance with propriety and precedent was, ostensibly at least, the top priority, more than twisting or shaping ritual to serve political ends.

So. What is "correct" in this context? What is meant by 礼, which I translate as "ritual propriety"? What did correct ritual look, sound, and feel like, and how does that intersect with Art History, History of Music, Textile/Fashion Studies, Performance Studies, etc?

That's basically my (ever-evolving) elevator pitch 😅. Whether I actually address it in the dissertation in a way that provides any satisfactory conclusions, or any genuinely meaningful and novel insights / contributions, I'm not so sure.

Answers are harder to write than questions. But I hope the questions might be intriguing at least.