Turtleback tomb on Takitome Island. Turtleback tombs, believed to be brought over from Fujian Province, the gateway to trade with China for Ryukyu, when the Ryukyu Kingdom became a vassal state of the regional hegemon, Ming Dynasty and later Qing Dynasty China, like most island Asian kingodoms like Siam (present-day Thailand), Melaka (present-day Malaysia), Java, Annam (part of present-day Vietnam) and even, at one point, China grandeously considered France and England to be vassal states. Ryukyu also shows cultural connections with the Austronesian world to the south, though, like the Japanese, Okinawans share Jomon ancestry with Japanese but to a lesser extent, their Yayoi ethnic ancestry. Over the centuries, there was signivicant intermarriage between Ryukyuans and Japanese and Chinese. Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan Their clean lines conceal how traditional Sabani boats were born out of necessity and nascent environmental concerns centuries ago. In the early 18th century, advisor to the King of Ryukyu, Sai On, crafted one of the most impactful forest-conservation plans still referenced today in Japan and the United States. Part of that plan forbade construction of ‘kuribune’ (dug-out) canoes, ubiquitous among fishermen, to protect trees of large girth in 1737. Confronted with the need to innovate, fishermen had to come up with a new kind of vessel - one that consumed less timber. //WHITLOWDELANOJAMES_sipa.30921/Credit:James Whitlow Delano/SIPA/2401101223