Quick Facts
Biography
Yonabaru Ueekata Ryōketsu (与那原 親方 良傑, 8 February 1836 – 22 December 1893), also known by his Chinese style name Ba Kensai (馬 兼才), was a politician, bureaucrat and diplomat of Ryukyu Kingdom.
Ryōketsu was born to an aristocrat family called Ba-shi Yonabaru Dunchi (馬氏与那原殿内). His father Yonabaru Ryōkyō (与那原 良恭, also known as Ba Chōtō 馬 朝棟), was a Sanshikan from 1859 to 1871.
In 1876, Ryukyu had to break off diplomatic relations with Qing China under the pressure of Imperial Japan. Ikegusuku Anki led a mission to Tokyo to complaint with it. Yonabaru Ryōketsu was good at diplomacy and Japanese language, so he was sent as an assistant. But Japanese ignored. Ikegusuku Anki died in 1877, Ryōketsu succeeded him as a member of Sanshikan. Ryōketsu contacted with envoys of Western countries and tried to let them get involved in, but there was little response. He Ruzhang (何如璋) and Huang Zunxian was appointed as the Imperial Chinese envoy and counsellor respectively, and went to Tokyo by ship in the same year. Ryōketsu met them secretly when their ship passed Kobe, petitioned Qing China to rescue the Ryukyu from annexation by Japan.
In 1879, Ryukyu was annexed by Japan, later, Japan declared the creation of Okinawa Prefecture. King Shō Tai moved to Tokyo in the same year, Ryōketsu serving as Keishi (家司) of the former king. The last three Sanshikan, Urasoe Chōshō, Tomikawa Seikei and Yonabaru Ryōketsu, all of them wanted to restore the Ryukyu Domain, they struggled for this ideal until their death.
Ryōketsu was also the Eboshioya (烏帽子親) of Shō In (Prince Ginowan) and Shō Jun (Prince Matsuyama).