Research & Article

A number of studies concerning the relations between Ryukyu and Ayutthaya has been conducted by Japanese researchers. However, most of them have focused on Ryukyu’s foreign relations and its maritime and trading activities with China, Korea, Japan and the Southeast Asian countries generally.1 As a result, it is difficult to determine how Ayutthaya responded to this trade as well as its relations with Ryukyu in other spheres. This paper seeks to examine Ayutthaya’s foreign relations as seen in Ryukyuan sources, and to consider diplomatic and trade relations with Ryukyu from the viewpoint of Ayutthaya. The formal letters Ayutthaya sent to Ryukyu have been collected in the Ryukyuan document called Rekidai Ho¯an as a principal source. The nature of the officials in charge of the trade, especially their position and rank given in Chinese, are analysed. With respect to trade relations, other written sources and archaeological data regarding Thai ceramics and earthenware found in Okinawa are used to investigate the characteristics of the trade between the two polities.