Satto complied with these requests without hesitation, as this granted him formal license to trade with the most powerful nation in the region.
He sent his younger brother Taiki (泰期) to Nanjing in 1374, as the leader of a mission to formally submit to China, entering into tributary and trade relations.
Though Okinawa was never conquered or annexed by China, this custom of investiture, of formally confirming the chief in the eyes of the Chinese court, continued as part of tributary relations until the dismantling of the Ryūkyū Kingdom five centuries later.
Tanegashima, for example, was used as a transfer and supply point for traders bound for Japan's main islands and the Inland Sea.
The "Chūzan Seikan" an official history book written by Haneji Chōshū in the 1650s, cites Satto's death as an example of tentō[5] (天道), a concept closely related to the Confucian Mandate of Heaven.