Shuri Castle

For four and a half centuries this was the seat of the Ryukyu Kingdom, an independent state that traded with China, Korea, Siam and Japan and built an architecture that looks like none of them exactly: Chinese red lacquer and dragons, Japanese joinery, Okinawan red tile.

It has been destroyed twice. In 1945 the Japanese 32nd Army built its headquarters in tunnels under the hill, so American ships shelled the castle for three days and left nothing standing. Reconstruction from photographs, drawings and Chinese records finished in 1992. Then on 31 October 2019 an electrical fire started in the main hall at night and burned it and several other buildings to the ground within hours. Okinawans watched it live on television. Donations came in from across the world within days.

What you visit now is a building site, and the site is the point. The main hall is being rebuilt in the traditional way with Okinawan and mainland timber, and there are viewing platforms where you can watch carpenters and lacquer workers at close range, with commentary on the techniques. Completion of the main hall is targeted for 2026.

Much of what surrounds it came through the 2019 fire: the great curving limestone walls, Shureimon gate, which appears on the 2,000 yen note and was itself rebuilt in 1958, and the Sonohyan-utaki stone gate of 1519, restored after the war. The UNESCO listing covers those stone remains rather than the reconstructed buildings, which is a distinction worth knowing.

Entry to the paid area is a few hundred yen and reduced during the works. It is a short monorail ride from central Naha to Shuri, then a fifteen-minute uphill walk.