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Shuri Castle and Japanese Castles: A Controversial Heritage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
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In October 31, 2019, a massive fire tore through the UNESCO World Heritage site of Shuri Castle in Okinawa, sparking a global reaction and comparisons with another World Heritage site. As in the case of Notre Dame, government officials immedicately declared their intention to rebuild, and donations flooded in from Okinawa, throughout Japan, and other countries. Shuri Castle is widely recognized as the symbol of the former Ryukyu kingdom. This article shows that the significance of Shuri Castle can only be fully understood by examining it in the context of castles in modern Japan. By understanding the commonalities and differences between Shuri Castle and mainland castles, we use the site as a tool to examine Okinawa's modern history. In spite of Shuri Castle's early origins and architecture differing somewhat from mainland Japanese castles, it was treated similarly to these other sites in the modern period. Like hundreds of other castles, Shuri Castle was taken over by the central government in the early Meiji period (1868-1912). Like dozens of other castles, Shuri Castle eventually became a garrison for the modern military. Like the castles at Nagoya, Hiroshima, Wakayama, Okayama, Ogaki, and Fukuyama, it was destroyed by US bombs in 1945. Like many other castles, it was demilitarized under the US Occupation and came to host cultural and educational facilities. The reconstruction of Shuri Castle from wood using traditional techniques in 1992 echoed similar projects at Kanazawa, Kakegawa, and Ōzu, as well as dozens of planned reconstructions. For many regions in Japan, castles have played a similar role to Shuri Castle, serving at times as symbols of connection to the nation, and at times as symbols of a local identity opposed to the often oppressive power of the central state. Examining the modern history of Shuri Castle as a Japanese castle can further complicate our understandings of the complex dynamics of Okinawa's relationship with Japan over the past 150 years.
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.- Copyright
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References
Notes
1 Smits, Gregory. Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2018. pp. 93-4, 113, 161-4, 189-92.
2 Loo, Tze May. Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa's Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879-2000. Lexington Books, 2014. pp. 12-13.
3 Smits, Gregory. “New Cultures, New Identities: Becoming Okinawan and Japanese in Nineteenth-Century Ryukyu,” in Peter Nosco, James Ketelaar, and Yasunori Kokima eds. Values, Identity, and Equality in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Japan Leiden: Brill, 2015. pp. 159-180; Smits, Gregory. Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politic University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1999. pp. 149-155.
4 For a discussion of the complex politics surrounding the original construction of the gate, see: Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, p. 211.
5 Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, pp. 161-192.
6 Smits, Visions of Ryukyu p. 146.
7 Ibid. p. 146.
8 Benesch, Oleg and Ran Zwigenberg. Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. pp. 29-30.
9 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 30.
10 Vitale, Judith. “The destruction and rediscovery of Edo Castle: ‘picturesque ruins’, ‘war ruins’,” Japan Forum, 31:4 (2019).
11 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 53.
12 Vitale, “The destruction and rediscovery of Edo Castle.”
13 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 50
14 Dresser, Christopher. Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882. p. 181.
15 Koyama Noboru. Kenburijji Daigaku hizō Meiji koshashin: Mākēzā Gō no Nihon ryokō. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2005.
16 Guillemard, Francis Henry Hill. The cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka & New Guinea. London : J. Murray, 1889. p. 42.
17 Ibid. pp. 42-43.
18 Ibid. p. 43.
19 Ibid. pp. 43-44.
20 Ibid. p. 44.
21 Ibid. p. 43. p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; }a:link { color: rgb(5, 99, 193); }
22 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, pp. 36-39, 161.
23 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 100.
24 Benesch, Oleg. “Castles and the Militarisation of Urban Society in Imperial Japan”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 28 (Dec. 2018), pp. 107-134.
25 NHK Matsue Hōsōkyoku ed. Shimane no hyakunen. Matsue: NHK Matsue Hōsōkyoku, 1968.
26 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 94.
27 bid. pp. 117, 173, 175, 279.
28 Aukema, Justin. “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance: War Memories at Shuri Castle,” Gendai Shakai Kenkyūka Ronshū (Contemporary Society Bulletin) Kyōto Joshi Daigaku,13 (March, 2019), p. 72.
29 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, pp. 118-119.
30 Ibid. p. 116.
31 Ibid. p. 86.
32 Ibid. pp. 115-116.
33 Nonaka Katsutoshi. “Jōshi ni kensetsu sareta kasetsu mogi tenshukaku no kensetsu keii to igi: senzen no chihō toshi ni okeru mogi tenshukaku no kensetsu ni kan suru kenkyū, sono 3,” Nihon kenchiku gakkai keikaku kei ronbun shū, 78:689 (July 2013), pp. 1553-1554.
34 Nonaka Katsutoshi. “Sengoku ki jōkaku no jōshi ni kensetsu sareta mogi tenshukaku no kensetsu keii to igi: senzen no chihō toshi ni okeru mogi tenshukaku no kensetsu ni kan suru kenkyū, sono 1,” Nihon kenchiku gakkai keikaku kei ronbun shū, 75:650 (April 2010), p. 838.
35 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, pp. 89-92.
36 Loo, Heritage Politics, pp. 45-47
37 Larsen, Knut Einar, ed. Nara Conference on Authenticity: In Relation to the World Heritage Convention. Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 1995. p. 177.
38 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 55.
39 Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993. pp. 135–141; Japan's Castles, p. 78.
40 Smits, “New Cultures, New Identities,” pp. 159-180. Smits, Visions of Ryukyu, p. 143
41 Smits, Visions of Ryukyu, pp. 148-151.
42 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, pp. 148-158.
43 Toya, Nobuhiro. “Kindai ni okeru ‘Ryūkyū kenchiku’ no seiritsu to chiiki shakai,” Nihon kenchiku gakkai keikaku kei ronbun shū, 73:623 (Jan, 2008), pp. 205-212.
44 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 150.
45 Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” p. 73.
46 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 179.
47 Ibid. p. 181.
48 Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” pp. 73-74.
49 Our thanks to Gerald Figal for pointing this out.
50 Sledge, E. B. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. New York: Presidio Press, 2010. P. 300. We thank Chris Nelson for pointing this incident out to us.
51 Ibid.
52 See this (https://civilwarchat.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/which-historian-cares-about-the-truth/), for instance.
53 Cited in Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” pp. 74
54 Figal, Gerald. Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa Blue. Ridge Summit: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. p. 137.
55 Koikari, Mire. Cold War Encounters in US-occupied Okinawa: Women, Militarized Domesticity, and Transnationalism in East Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. p. 37.
56 Quoted in Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” p. 74.
57 Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” pp. 75.
58 Ibid, 75.
59 Ibid, 75.
60 Fukubayashi Tōru. “Gunto Fushimi no keisei to shūen,” in Harada Keiichi ed. Chiiki no naka no guntai 4: koto, shōto no guntai, Kinki. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2015. p.68.
61 Imamura Yōichi, “Sengo Nihon ni okeru kyūgun yōchi no gakkō e no ten'yō to bunkyō shigaichi no keisei,” Toshikeikaku ronbunshū 49:1 (2014), p. 44.
62 Cited in Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 198.
63 Cited in ibid. p. 202.
64 Cited in ibid. p. 207.
65 Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” p. 78.
66 Cited in Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 319.
67 Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” p. 80.
68 Figal, Beachheads, p. 144.
69 Figal, Beachheads, p. 140.
70 Cited in Figal, Beachheads, p. 154.
71 Ibid. p. 152; also see this. (https://apjjf.org/-Gregory-Smits/3409/article.html%20)
72 Smits, Maritime Ryukyu; Smits, Visions of Ryukyu.
73 Cited in Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, pp. 279-280n.
74 Figal, Beachheads, p. 135.
75 Benesch and Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles, p. 299.
76 Japan Times, May 16, 1992.
77 Figal, Beachheads, p. 148.
78 in Aukema, “Cultures of (Dis)remembrance,” p. 88.
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