Kinjo-cho limestone pavement

There used to be a 10-kilometer-long highway paved with Ryukyuan limestone, extending from Shuri-jo castle to the southeast. The Ryukyuan Kingdom built this road at the beginning of the 16th century when King Show Shin led the kingdom to its pinnacle. The road was proudly called Madama-michi (the pearl-like road).

What remains now is only a short length, about 300-meter-long paved slope in Kinjo-cho near Shuri-jo castle. Even this could be a miracle, come to think of the total obliteration the castle had to go through toward the end of WWⅡ, when it was bombarded by the US forces.

Try walking from Shuri-jo down the slope. Around the middle of the route is a small sign on your left (in Japanese) which leads you to the six awesome Akagi trees (Bischofia javanica). They are said to be over 200 years old and survived the bombardment in 1945. The photo is one of them.

There, you will feel spiritual ambience and you’re right about that. The holy places like this are ubiquitous in Okinawa. And that’s one big reason I love this subtropical haven.

When you come back to the main slope, you’ll soon find a reproduced Ryukyuan house on your right, open to the public as a rest lounge. Near it is a former community well, made in a typical Ryukyuan style with limestone.

Ryuhi, or dragon head water conduit

Nine sites on Okinawa Main Island were collectively designated as world cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2000, listed under the name, The Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of the Ryukyus. Gusuku is an Okinawan fortress, castle, and palace always built with sacerdotal sphere.

Unfortunately most of the Gusuku structures were lost including those of Shuri-jo (Shuri Castle), the greatest of them all. The present Shuri-jo is a reconstruction, the significant part of which was completed and opened to the public in 1992.

It was probably built in the 14th century and later served as the headquarters of the Ryukyuan Kingdom, the first unified kingdom in Okinawa, established in 1429 and lasted until 1879, though its independence became nominal after being attacked and defeated by the Satsuma troops from Kyushu, mainland Japan in 1609.

Shuri-jo burned four times; first in an internal strife, second and third due to inadvertent fire, and eventually obliterated during the course of the Battle of Okinawa, fought toward the end of WWⅡ, the only ground battles fought on Japan proper in which lots of civilians were sacrificed because the civilians and military personnel got mixed up in the southern Okinawa and the strategy of attrition was taken by the imperial army.

Large army headquarters were built beneath the castle premises in 1944. Natural caves, abundant in Okinawa, were used and expanded to make a large-scale command station. Shuri-jo lost almost all of it except a few items when bombarded heavily in May, 1945.

Fortunately, however, this small item, a water conduit installed at the foot of Zuisen Gate (Zuisen-mon), the gate of blessed water, brought back from China at the beginning of the 16th century, survived.

For 500 years, the spring water has been welling up. The castle restoration work revealed that a small tunnel leads to the water source, 30 meters deep from the dragon head conduit.

Okinawa's Peace Park seen from the hill

Here's a picture of the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum taken at the slope leading up to Mabuni Hill, where many memorial monuments stand. Most of them are dedicated to the victims from respective prefectures; there's the National Peace Mausoleum for War Dead too. Another is a tribute to the controversial commander, who killed himself on June 23, 1945, which marked the end of the organized fight of the Japanese Imperial Army. Still sporadic fighting went on until the end of August and the battles officially ended in September 7 by the signing of surrender. Visitors spend some time at the Peace Museum and look at the Cornerstone of Peace and Peace Flame, but rarely go up the hill. Take another hour and stroll the hill. You will remember Okinawa more that way.