Shuri Castle 2

This is the Shuri Castle and it's surrounding buildings. The building shown here was the King and Queen's main living quarters. Many ceremonies were conducted on this parade deck.

Here's my little poser! Cameron enjoyed climbing all the stairs.

Instead of the typical souvenirs that one may collect in the states, the Japanese have stamping stations. We started out with a map of the grounds and at each little building or new path, there was a stamping station. Daniel found almost all the stamps. It's a good way to know that you've seen it all!

Daniel poses in front of one of the most sacred buildings on the castle grounds. This was the place of prayer for all those living at the castle. It was where the King would pray before leaving his castle and before many political meetings. Its just a wall around a couple of Banyan trees, it's supposed to be very sacred.

This is the top of the front of the castle where the king would sit to watch the various ceremonies. A lot of the art work bears resemblance to that of Chinese art, due to the fact that the Chinese played a very important role in crowning Okinawa's first king. The kingdom of Okinawa was known as the Ryukyu Kingdom. The dragon is the Chinese symbol of peace and power.

We visited the tatami rooms, that's all they were, just rooms with mats on the floors. We had to take off our shoes for the whole inside tour, so not to ruin the mats. Pictured below is the place where they would brew their green tea, just a cement hole in the floor. Otherwise, there were no furniture or anything that would resemble a kitchen! It was a little disappointing.

The outer porch of the tatami house.

There were only two of these ornate columns, not sure if there were actually more. There was quite a bit of construction going on while we were there. The third floor was the attic and strictly for ventilation purposes. Overall, the castle living quarters were quite smaller than I'd imagined for a king. On the second floor, there was a chair facing what looked like a wall, but it actually was a wall that was lifted to show off the king from the second deck. This is where he would give his speeches and watch the special ceremonies on the parade deck in front.

This is another seat of the king or queen. Half of the second level of this part of the castle belonged to the queen and the king's other wives. No males, other than her children, were allowed in this part of the castle at anytime.

The king and his women would pray every morning in their tatami rooms.

The rooms were quite bare. It seemed that this castle was robbed and left with hardly anything!! Maybe the fact that this is it's third reconstruction, due to the wars. The hole in the floor shows the original ruins of the castle.

An enlarged version of the king's crown, not as lavish as I would've imagined. Of course the bead work here is fake, it was real gems when he wore it. We are standing in front of the area where the king would sit to conduct business. There wasn't a throne here, just a tatami mate on a raised platform. His son and grandson would sit on his left and right.

Cameron poses with one of the guards (?)

This is a view of the surrounding area of the castle. Now the castle is pretty well swallowed up by the town.