Chatan Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Okinawa

Chatan Castle, or Chatan Gusuku, occupies an elongated Ryūkyū limestone hill near the mouth of the Shirahi River, in the town of Chatan on the west coast of Okinawa Island. With no written records, its origins rest on tradition: the hill is said to have first been the residence of the lord Kaniman, before the Ōkawa lineage developed the fortress in the 14th and 15th centuries. With more than 15,000 m² spread over several terraced enclosures from east to west, it is one of the largest gusuku on the island. A stronghold of the Chūzan kingdom and later a regional administrative centre, the site was abandoned in the 16th century, but it was still used in 1609 during the Satsuma invasion. Seized by the US military after 1945 and enclosed within Camp Zukeran (Camp Foster), the hill long remained inaccessible, which limited excavations. Returned in 2020, it was designated a National Historic Site in 2021; recent surveys have revealed Chinese and Korean celadon, porcelain and tombs cut into the cliffs.