East Asia · Fragmentation, Song and the conquest dynasties
Shunten Dynasty
1187–1259/1260
The Shunten dynasty (traditionally 1187–1259/1260) was the legendary first ruling line of Chūzan on Okinawa, ruling from Urasoe Castle. Its founder Shunten (c. 1165–1237; divine name Sonton) is claimed in Ryukyuan official histories to be the son of the exiled samurai Minamoto no Tametomo and a local noblewoman.
- Existed
- 1187–1259/1260
- Shown on the map
- 1188–1313
- Peak area
- 2k km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Shunten dynasty (traditionally 1187–1259/1260) was the legendary first ruling line of Chūzan on Okinawa, ruling from Urasoe Castle. Its founder Shunten (c. 1165–1237; divine name Sonton) is claimed in Ryukyuan official histories to be the son of the exiled samurai Minamoto no Tametomo and a local noblewoman. Becoming aji (lord) of Urasoe at 15, he led a revolt against the usurper Riyū (who had toppled the mythical Tenson dynasty) and gained recognition as overlord of Okinawan chieftains (r. 1187–1237). He was succeeded by his son Shunbajunki (r. 1237–1248), credited with building Shuri Castle and introducing Japanese kana, and then his grandson Gihon (r. 1248–1259), whose reign of famine, epidemics, and typhoons led him to appoint the regent Eiso; Gihon then disappeared (c. 1259–1260), ending the dynasty. Modern scholars regard the Tametomo descent as a later legend (spread c. 1400, recorded in the 1500s–1600s) subsequently used to justify Satsuma's 1609 invasion.
Common questions
- What was the Shunten Dynasty?
- The Shunten dynasty (traditionally 1187–1259/1260) was the legendary first ruling line of Chūzan on Okinawa, ruling from Urasoe Castle. Its founder Shunten (c. 1165–1237; divine name Sonton) is claimed in Ryukyuan official histories to be the son of the exiled samurai Minamoto no Tametomo and a local noblewoman.
- When did the Shunten Dynasty exist?
- The Shunten Dynasty existed 1187–1259/1260. On this map it is drawn 1188–1313.
- How large was the Shunten Dynasty?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Shunten Dynasty covered about 2,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Shunten dynasty en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunten_dynasty
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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