Philippines Sea

The Philippine Sea off the Sakishima Islands faces the southern end of the Ryukyu chain, where Miyako and Yaeyama form the inhabited shores nearest the open water. These seas belonged to a larger maritime world connecting Ryukyu with China, Japan and Southeast Asia. From the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, Ryukyuan merchants acted as intermediaries, carrying Chinese silks and pottery, Japanese goods and southern products through networks sustained by tributary relations and seafaring.

The political framework changed after Satsuma invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609. The kingdom continued diplomatic and commercial relations with China while coming under Japanese influence, giving the island chain overlapping connections to both powers. The open sea also carried dangers that reached far beyond an individual voyage. On 24 April 1771 a great tsunami struck Yaeyama and Miyako from the sea south-southeast of Ishigaki. Thousands died, and waves carried massive coral blocks inland. For the communities around these waters, the sea was therefore a route for contact and obligation, a source of food and an unpredictable force capable of transforming the shores on which their settlements depended.