tsuma, in recognition of meritorious services.
Subsequently (1471) the shogun Yoshimasa, in compliance with a
request from the Shimazu family, forbade the sailing of any vessel to
Ryukyu without a Shimazu permit, and when, a few years later, Miyake
Kunihide attempted to invade Ryukyu, the Shimazu received Muromachi's
(Yoshitane's) commission to punish him. Historically, therefore,
Ryukyu formed part of Japan, but its rulers maintained a tributary
attitude towards China until recent times, as will presently be seen.

LITERATURE DURING THE MUROMACHI PERIOD

Throughout the Muromachi period of two and a half centuries a group
of military men held the administration and reaped all rewards and
emoluments of office so that literary pursuits ranked in
comparatively small esteem. Some education was necessary, indeed, for
men of position, but eminent scholars were exceptional. Noteworthy
among the latter were Nijo Yoshimoto, Ichijo Fuyuyoshi, Doin Kinsada,
Sanjonishi Sanetaka, and Kiyowara Naritada. Most renowned was Ichijo
Kaneyoshi. Equally versed in the classics of China and Japan, as well
as in Buddhism and Confucianism, he composed several works of high
merit. A feature of the period was the erudition of the priests.
Gen-e, a bonze of the temple Hiei-zan, adopted the commentaries of
the Sung savants, Chengtzu and Chutsu, rejecting those of the earlier
Han and Tang writers. In other words, he adopted the eclectic system
of Buddhism and Confucianism as compounded by the scholars of the
Sung and the Yuan epochs, in preference to the system of earlier
pundits. The Emperor Go-Daigo invited Gen-e to Court and directed him
to expound the Sutras. Thereafter, the Sung philosophy obtained wide
allegiance, being preached by the priests of the Five Great Temples
in Kyoto, and by all their provincial branches. On the other hand,
the hereditary schools of Oye and Sugawara, adhering to their old
dogmas, fell behind the times and declined in influence.

The feature of the age in point of learning was that scholarship
became a priestly specialty. From the Five Temples (Go-zari) students
constantly flocked to China, where they received instructions in the
exoterics and esoterics of Buddhism, as modified by the creed of
Confucius, laying the foundations of systems upon which philosophers
of later ages, as Kazan and Seiga, built fair edifices. These priests
of the Five Temples were more than religious propagandists: they were
ministers of St