Maritime Maps and Ryukyu Heritage

Era background: The story spans from 1868 (Japan's Meiji Restoration) to 1947 (the establishment of the United Nations Trusteeship Council), focusing on the century-old ups and downs of the Ryukyu Kingdom from being forced to "abolish vassals and establish prefectures" to the trusteeship period after World War II. It uses the fate of ordinary Ryukyu noble families as an incision to show the struggle and inheritance of national culture in the torrent of the times. Core themes: the continuation of cultural roots, the search for identity, the glimmer of humanity in troubled times, and the Ryukyu people's eternal pursuit of peace and independence. Main characters: Cai Shichang: Descendant of the Cai family in Kume Village, Ryukyu. Born in 1852, he was the last minister (translator) of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Influenced by Confucian culture, he traveled between Fuzhou, Tokyo, and Naha throughout his life, trying to seek an independent space for Ryukyu. Xiang Dening: The wife of Cai Shichang, a descendant of the Xiang family of the Ryukyu royal family. She is good at the traditional Ryukyu craft "red dyeing". She silently guards the family's ancestral genealogy and Ryukyu ancient music manuscripts and is the spiritual pillar of the family. Cai Minghai: The eldest son of Cai Shichang, born in 1875. He was sent to Japan to study as a teenager. He struggled with the tearing of his identity and eventually joined the Ryukyu independence movement. Cai Minghui: Cai Shichang's eldest daughter, born in 1878, lived with her father in Fuzhou, and later married a Ryukyu businessman. During the war, she led her tribe to stick to the cultural stronghold of Naha. Itachi Naoki: A low-level samurai from Kagoshima, Japan, who was appointed as an official stationed in Ryukyu in 1879. He deeply sympathized with the suffering of the Ryukyu people and had a complicated bond with the Cai family for decades.