A collector of old photos in Tokyo has discovered among his collections 29 pictures that experts say provide "extremely important" information about life in Okinawa during the late 1800s when the Meiji government abolished the Ryukyu Kingdom and seized control of its territory as a new prefecture.
With one of the photos showing armed Japanese soldiers standing at the front gate of Shuri Castle, the kingdom's palace, the pictures are believed to have been taken between 1879, when the Meiji government sent troops to expel the Ryukyu king, and 1896, when it withdrew them from the castle.
Keisho Ishiguro, 72, who purchased the photos from the owner of a secondhand bookstore, quoted him as saying that they originally belonged to Teiun Yamanouchi, the governor of Kagoshima from 1890 to 1892.