, also known by his Chinese style name , was a bureaucrat of the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom, Middle Chinese: , , Classical Chinese: (), Historical English names: ''Lew Chew'', ''Lewchew'', ''Luchu'', and ''Loochoo'', Historical French name: ''Liou-tchou'', Historical Dutch name: ''Lioe-kioe'' was a kingdom in t ...

. Chatan Chōchō was an uncle of the famous ''

sessei was the highest government post of the Ryūkyū Kingdom below the king; the ''sessei'' served the function of royal or national advisor. In the Ryukyuan language at the time, the pronunciation was closer to ''shisshii'', and has only changed relat ...

Shō Shōken , also known as , was a Ryukyuan scholar and served as ''sessei'', a post often translated as "prime minister," from 1666 to 1673. Shō wrote the first history of the Ryukyu Kingdom, , and enacted a number of practical political reforms aimed at i ...

. He served as a member of ''

Sanshikan The ''Sanshikan'' (), or Council of Three, was a government body of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, which originally developed out of a council of regents. It emerged in 1556, when the young Shō Gen, who was mute, ascended to the throne of Ryūkyū. The co ...

'' from 1652 to 1666. In 1663, King

Shō Shitsu was a king of the Ryukyu Kingdom who held the throne from 1648 until his death in 1668. The fourth son of King Shō Hō, he was named Prince of Sashiki in 1637, at the age of eight, and was granted Sashiki '' magiri'' as his domain. In 1645, hi ...

dispatched Chatan as a gratitude envoy for his investiture to

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. The mission stayed at Fuzhou on their way home the next year. King Shō Shitsu dispatched Eso Jūkō (, also known as Ei Jōshun ) as a congratulatory envoy to celebrate

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

's coronation at the same time. But Eso's envoy was shipwrecked near Meihua Port (, a port in modern

Changle (, Foochow Romanized: Diòng-lŏ̤h) is one of 6 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, China. It occupies a land area of and a sea area of . Changle was established in the sixth year of Emper ...

, Fuzhou) in the mouth of Min River, and was attacked by pirates. Eso fled to Fuzhou, some of his entourage were murdered by poison, and golden pots prepared for Kangxi Emperor were stolen. Two envoys came back to Ryukyu in 1665. Soon Chatan found the truth: the pirates were actually Ryukyuans disguised as Chinese, and all of them were his entourage. When the ship passed by Iheya Island, he threw all participants into the sea in order to hush up the incident. But finally the truth was known by

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshim ...

. Both Chatan and Eso were sentenced to death by Satsuma, and decapitated by Ryukyu Kingdom. Their eight sons were exiled to outlying islands and . This incident was known as .Chatan Eso jiken
" ''Okinawa konpakuto jiten'' (沖縄コンパクト事典, "Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia").

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chocho, Chatan 1607 births 1667 deaths People executed by Japan by decapitation Ueekata Sanshikan 17th-century Ryukyuan people