Hokuzan
The political entity was identified as a tiny country,[2][3][4] a kingdom, or a principality by modern historians, however the ruler of Hokuzan was in fact not "kings" at all, but petty lords with their own retainers owing their direct service, and their own estates.Okinawa, previously controlled by a number of local chieftains or lords, loosely bound by a paramount chieftain or king of the entire island, split into these three more solidly defined kingdoms within a few years after 1314; the Sanzan period thus began, and would end roughly one hundred years later, when Chūzan's King Shō Hashi[note 1] conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429.In addition to its deficiencies in agriculture and fishing, Hokuzan suffered from the disadvantage, relative to Chūzan, of holding no port to equal Naha (O. Naafa).Chūzan entered a tributary relationship with Ming dynasty China in 1372, and Hokuzan and Nanzan were granted similar commercial status shortly afterwards.At the end of the 17th century, Sanhoku nominally comprised 9 magiri (間切): Onna, Kin, Kushi, Nago, Haneji, Motobu, Nakijin, Ōgimi, and Kunigami.