Okinawan Samurai

In Okinawa, samurai were called samurē.

Recently (2020), there was a discussion on Facebook about Okinawan samurai (士, samurē in Okinawan dialect). Samurē means shizoku (士族, literally, the samurai class). The Encyclopedia of Okinawa (II) (1983) has the following explanation in its article on shizoku.

Shizoku
A term indicating the ruling status in the early modern period [in Okinawa]. Originally, however, the word samurē was used in common usage, and was also called yukattu and keimochi, meaning “having a genealogy.” The term shizoku was adopted by…