Until the abolition of Japanese peerage in 1947, the head of the family was given the rank of marquess while several cadet branches held the title of baron.

After a coup d'état in 1469, Kanemaru set aside King Shō Toku's family and ascended to the throne.

Ryūkyū, with its kokudaka assessed as 123,700 koku, was recognized as part of the Satsuma Domain,[10] though it was excluded from the omotedaka (表高, lit.

[13] However, the rulers during this period were referred to "kings" (王, ō) in their Ishizushi [ja] (石厨子) inscriptions in the family mausoleum Tamaudun.

[14] The title King of Chūzan was also remained in the diplomatic letter to China, concealing its vassalage to Satsuma.

Because the Shō family members occupied a large portion of high-ranking positions, they often changed their kamei during the course of their career.

[15] The character Chō (朝) was chosen to indicate an affinity to Minamoto no Tametomo (源為朝), who by that time had been considered to be the father of Shunten, the legendary king of Chūzan.

[16] While the Chūzan Seikan (1650) only presented a wishful speculation that Shō En's father might have descended from a former king, Sai On's edition of the Chūzan Seifu (1725) explicitly referred to Gihon as a possible ancestor, connecting the second Shō family to the Minamoto clan through Shunten.

The King, possibly inspired by Japanese pirates who worshipped the Japanese god of war, Hachiman, adopted Hachiman's symbol and led an invasion of Kikai Island in 1467, later building the Asato Hachimangū shrine and taking the divine name of Hachiman-aji in response to his victory.

[19] Corroborating this was the discovery of a wooden coffin inscribed with a mitsudomoe and the year 1500 found in the Momojana tombs in Northern Okinawa.