Shikinaen

Most people who come to Naha for Ryukyu history go to Shuri Castle and stop there. Shikinaen, about 2 km to the south, sees a fraction of the crowd, and it is the better place to sit down for half an hour. It was laid out in 1799 as a villa for the royal family, and it was also where the kingdom wined and dined the sappoushi, the envoys sent by the Chinese emperor to confirm each new king. That makes it as much a piece of diplomacy as a garden.

The design mixes its sources openly. The ground plan, with a path circling a pond and the views changing as you go, follows Japanese strolling gardens. The six-sided Rokkakudo pavilion on its islet and the arched stone bridges are Chinese in style. The main house, the Udun, is a long wooden building with a red-tiled roof in the Ryukyu manner, and you can look into its rooms from the veranda. On the north side, the Ikutokusen spring that feeds the pond has two stone tablets inscribed by Zhao Wenkai, a Chinese envoy. From the Kankodai lookout you see fields and hills but no sea; a story told about it says this was meant to make the envoys think the kingdom was larger than it was.

Almost none of it is original. The garden was wrecked in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 and rebuilt from careful excavation and research, a job finished in fiscal 1996. It became a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and, in 2000, one of the nine parts of the Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu World Heritage property.

The gate is right by the Shikinaen-mae bus stop, and parking is free. The loop is short and mostly gentle, but there is little shade, so in summer go early. It closes on Wednesdays, and occasionally for maintenance or events, so check before you come.