Gushikawa Castle (Kumejima)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Okinawa

Gushikawa Castle on Kumejima stands on a hill jutting into the East China Sea, northwest of the hamlet of Nakandakari on Kume Island, about a hundred kilometres west of Okinawa Island. Bordered by cliffs to the east and west and washed by the sea to the north, it connects with the island's interior only to the south. Low stone walls divide it into four enclosures: the highest, to the north, probably served as a lookout, while another carried the main building on a platform, with sandstone column bases. 18th-century chronicles describe the site as a former village sanctuary turned fortress. The lord Makanegoe is said to have been driven out by Manikudaru, younger son of the lord of Ishikinaha, before founding a castle of the same name in the south of the main island; King Shō Shin is then said to have had the stronghold reduced in the early 16th century. Ceramics from the 14th and 15th centuries unearthed during excavations from 1999 to 2007 confirm occupation in the early 15th century.