Chinen Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Okinawa

Set on a coastal terrace about a hundred metres above the Pacific, at the south-eastern tip of Okinawa Island, Chinen Castle is a gusuku as religious as it is defensive. Its founding date is unknown, but tradition counts it among the oldest strongholds of Ryukyu; it is said to have been the seat of the aji, the local lords, of the Chinen district. The site brings together two enclosures joined east to west: the old castle, with rough-stone walls of coral limestone, and the new castle, some ten metres lower, built of cut stone and attributed to Uchima Ufuya, half-brother of King Sho Shin. The latter opens through two arched vaulted gates, one to the east and one to the north. Inside remain a place of remote worship facing the sacred island of Kudaka, linked to Okinawa's creation myth, and an altar to the fire god. Kings and the chief priestess stopped here during their pilgrimages. Repaired in the 18th century under Sho Kei, the site has been a National Historic Site since 1972 and is freely accessible.