history has shown that a variety of methods were used by rulers to extract taxes from the people they governed. During the Ryukyu Kingdom Era, the Ninto-sekih, literally meaning human head stone, was used to determine the roster of those from whom taxes would be collected. A heavy tax was imposed on anyone taller than the Ninto-seki, a stone column with a height of 1.45 meters (4ft.9in.); it was a taxation stone that determined the unenviable status of taxpayers. It still stands near Hirara Port on Miyako Island.

During the feudal times of the 14th year of Keicho(1609), the mighty Satsuma clan of Kyushu in southern Japan conquered the Ryukyu Kingdom and demanded that the Shuri Court pay a tribute of one-fourth of its total output. This eventually forced a much heavier taxation onto the Ryukyuan people than in previous years. Men were to pay in millet and women to pay in Jofu (woven cloth of Miyako).

Because records of age and addresses were not clear at that time, the stone column was used to determine age. Those whose height exceeded that of the stone were identified as taxable individuals.

Even after the Meiji Government annexed the Ryukyuan Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century, this special tax system was continually applied to the people of Miyako and Yaeyama. Mr.Seian Gusukuma, a technician in a sugar factory who came from the okinawa mainland, and Mr. Jusaku Nakamura, who came from Niigata Prefecture in the mainland to cultivate pearls, were opposed to the burden of the heavy tax system, and started a campaign to abolish it. In 1893 (26th year of Meiji), a delegation from Miyako including Gusukuma and Nakamura traveled to Tokyo to petition the Meiji Imperial Assembly. It was finally decided by the assembly to terminate the onerous tax system of Miyako and Yaeyama.