Okinawa’s Shuri Castle Partially Restored after Fire in 2019

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 31 (Jiji Press)–Six years after a fire, restoration work was nearly completed in July on the vivid red exterior of the “Seiden” main hall of Shuri Castle in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan. The wooden castle is considered the symbol of Okinawa. The main hall will be completed in autumn next year. The fire broke out in the early hours of Oct. 31, 2019, burning down the Seiden hall and eight other buildings of the castle. Restoration work for the main hall started in November 2022. The restoration received many donations from inside and outside the country. Local students took to the streets to collect donations just after the fire, and many Okinawans overseas made donations. The prefectural government received some 6.1 billion yen in donations as of the end of September. They were used for making decorations for the main hall and training workers for traditional architecture. The number of visitors to the castle park is on the rise, after a decline following the fire and the COVID-19 pandemic. The prefectural government is working to welcome many visitors, including by introducing time-restricted tickets to ease congestion and making a digital map for surrounding historic streetscapes. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said the castle is “inseparably linked to the history and culture” of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Kingdom, which governed the Okinawa region from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Tamaki said he hopes that the surrounding areas will become a place where visitors can encounter Ryukyu culture and history. A completion date for the reconstruction of other buildings of the castle has not been determined. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]