In March 1879, his father Shō Tai formally abdicated upon the orders of the Meiji government, which abolished the kingdom, transforming Ryukyu domain into Okinawa Prefecture, with officials appointed from Tokyo to administer the islands.

[1] The former king was ordered to report to Tokyo, but feigning illness, he temporarily found shelter at his son's palace.

Shō was then sent to Tokyo as a hostage and partial appeasement as Ryūkyūan officials searched for ways to delay the former king's departure.

[2] Following his father's death and his succession as Marquess and head of the Shō family in 1901, Shō and his family gave up the trappings of traditional Ryukyuan royal court life, costume, court language, and ritual, and adopted those of the Japanese peerage.

As Marquess, Shō held a hereditary seat in the House of Peers in the Imperial Diet.