Before it became a Japanese prefecture, Okinawa was an independent kingdom with its own king, its own language and its own music. Between 1429 and 1879 its ships linked China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. Twelve stops between the gate on the two-thousand-yen note, the mausoleum of the kings, the stone portal where the monarch prayed, the red palace that burned again and again, the coral-paved road, the district of awamori distillers, the potters' street, the market born from the black market, the village of Chinese scholars, the shrine on the cliff, the cape of blue waters and the meadow where ten thousand people could sit. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
▸ Ver en español
Okinawa: el reino Ryukyu, que comerció con media Asia durante 450 años
Antes de ser una prefectura japonesa, Okinawa fue un reino independiente con su propio rey, su propia lengua y su propia música. Entre 1429 y 1879, sus barcos unieron China, Japón, Corea y el Sudeste Asiático. Doce paradas entre la puerta del billete de dos mil yenes, el mausoleo de los reyes, el portal de piedra donde rezaba el monarca, el palacio rojo que ardió una y otra vez, el camino empedrado de coral, el barrio de los destiladores de awamori, la calle de los alfareros, el mercado nacido del mercado negro, la aldea de los sabios chinos, el santuario sobre el acantilado, el cabo de las aguas azules y la pradera donde podían sentarse diez mil personas. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~22 min of audio · 52.92 km on foot (~13 h 15 min walking) · about 13 h 45 min in total
You are standing before a wooden gate painted red, with two stacked tiled roofs and a plaque at its centre. This is Shureimon, the ceremonial entrance to Shuri Castle. If you have a two-thousand-yen note, you will find it printed there.
Look at the four Chinese characters on the plaque: Shurei no kuni. They mean the land of propriety, of good manners. It was the message the kingdom wished to give the envoys arriving from China.
This place was not Japan. For four and a half centuries these islands were the Kingdom of Ryukyu, with its own king, its own language and its own court. In 1429 a lor…
2
The Stone House of the Dead Kings
You are in a courtyard of white coral, facing a low stone building whose roofs imitate those of a wooden house. This is Tamaudun, the mausoleum of the kings of Ryukyu. It is not an underground grave: it is a house for the dead.
King Sho Shin had it built in 1501 to bring here the remains of his father, Sho En. Sho En had been an official who seized power in 1470 and founded a new dynasty, the second Sho dynasty. His descendants reigned until the end of the kingdom.
Look at the three chambers. In the central one the bodies were left until only the bones remained. Then the bones were washed an…
3
The Gate That Leads Nowhere
You have passed Shureimon, and on your left stands a small gate of limestone, its roof also carved in stone. There is no building behind it, only trees. This is the gate of Sonohyan-utaki.
An utaki is a sacred grove. In Ryukyuan religion the gods did not live in temples but in groves, rocks and springs. This gate is not meant for people to walk through: it is the gate of the gods.
King Sho Shin had it built in 1519. Whenever the king left the castle on a journey, he stopped here to pray for his safety.
Notice something important: the people who led these rites were women. The kingdom's reli…
4
The Red Palace Facing China
You have climbed between curving limestone walls and reached the central courtyard of the castle, the Una. Look at the ground: it has stripes of tiles in two colours. They marked where each official had to stand according to his rank.
Ahead stands the Seiden, the main hall of the palace. It was a wooden building coated in red lacquer, with a facade that blended Chinese and Japanese styles. It faces west, towards China.
The kingdom's most important ceremony was held in this courtyard: the investiture. Each new king had to be recognised by the Chinese emperor, who sent his envoys by ship. They…
5
The Coral Stone Road
You are at the top of a steep street paved with large slabs of grey stone, between low walls and gardens. This is the Kinjo-cho stone path. Go down slowly: the stone becomes slippery in the rain.
This stone is Ryukyu limestone, formed from coral reefs that the sea lifted up thousands of years ago. The castle walls, the tombs and the roads were all built with it. Look closely and you will see pores and fragments of shells.
The road was built in the time of King Sho Shin, in the early sixteenth century. It was part of the Madama-michi, the route linking Shuri with the south of the island. Offi…
6
The King's Liquor
You are in Sakiyama, a quiet district of Shuri on the slope southeast of the castle. From the small park you can see Naha stretching to the sea. Consider that three hundred years ago this district smelled of fermenting rice.
This is where awamori, Okinawa's liquor, was distilled. Under the kingdom its production was controlled by the royal government and concentrated in three districts of Shuri: Akata, Torihori and Sakiyama. There are still distilleries on this slope today.
Awamori is a child of trade. The distilling technique came from Southeast Asia, and tradition links it to Siam, present…
7
The Potters' Street
You are on a narrow cobbled street lined with shops full of colourful plates, cups and jars. This is Tsuboya, Naha's pottery quarter. In the Okinawan language, pottery is called yachimun.
In 1682 the royal government decided to gather in one place the potters who worked scattered across three parts of the island. It brought them here, to Tsuboya. From then on this district was the centre of the kingdom's ceramics.
Part of the technique came from Korea. In the early seventeenth century Korean potters arrived by way of Satsuma, the Japanese domain in southern Kyushu, and taught the Okinawans. …
8
The Market Born from the Ruins
You are in the Makishi First Public Market, surrounded by covered arcades that cross like a maze. On the stalls there are blue and red fish, pork in every form and tropical fruit. Downstairs you can choose a fish and, upstairs, they will cook it for you.
Look at the pork. Since the days of the kingdom, Okinawan cooking has used the whole animal: ears, trotters, skin. It is a legacy of Chinese influence, very different from traditional Japanese cuisine.
This market is not centuries old. It was born after 1945 as a black market, on empty lots where people sold whatever they could find. The cit…
9
The Village of the Thirty-Six Chinese Clans
You are in front of a temple with curving roofs and coloured tiles, behind a Chinese-style gate. This is the Shiseibyo, the Confucian temple of the Kume district. If you did not know where you were, you might think this was Fujian, in southern China.
According to the kingdom's chronicles, at the end of the fourteenth century the Ming emperor sent a group of families from Fujian to Ryukyu. They are remembered as the thirty-six clans. They were navigators, shipbuilders, interpreters and scribes.
They settled here, by the port, and founded Kumemura, the village of Kume. For centuries their desc…
10
The Shrine Above the Waves
You are in front of Naminoue Shrine, high on a coral cliff that drops straight into the sea. Its name means above the waves. If you lean out to the side, you will see the small Naminoue beach at its foot.
Long before there was a shrine, this cliff was already a sacred place. The people of Okinawa came to pray facing the sea, towards Niraikanai, the distant paradise from which, they believed, the gods and abundance arrived.
Right next to it lay the port of Naha, the kingdom's great harbour. From here ships set out for China and Southeast Asia, and here people prayed for their return. A voyage…
11
The Sea That Made a Kingdom
You are at Cape Maeda, above limestone cliffs that drop into water of an unbelievable blue. Below, divers enter the Blue Cave, where sunlight tints the water from within. Look at the edge of the reef: it is living coral.
Everything you have seen today came out of this sea. The stone of the castle, the tombs and the roads is ancient coral. And the kingdom's wealth arrived on ships crossing these waters.
Okinawa sits in the middle of everything. From here, Fujian, Kyushu, Korea and Taiwan are only days away under a good wind. Ryukyuan ships rode the monsoons, which change direction with the se…
12
The Meadow of Ten Thousand
You are at Manzamo, on a plateau of grass and rock above the sea. Look towards the point: the cliff forms an arch that resembles an elephant's trunk dipped into the water.
The name comes from a royal visit. According to tradition, in the eighteenth century King Sho Kei passed by and said this meadow was so wide that ten thousand people could sit on it. Man means ten thousand; mo, meadow.
Sho Kei reigned during the most brilliant period of the kingdom's culture. For his investiture in 1719, the official Tamagusuku Chokun created kumiodori, a musical theatre to entertain the Chinese envoys. It…
How long does the "Okinawa: the Ryukyu Kingdom, Which Traded with Half of Asia for 450 Years" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 52.92 km walking route (~13 h 15 min on foot). Plan roughly 13 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Gate of the Land of Propriety" (coordinates 26.2178, 127.7158). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Naha and pick "Okinawa: the Ryukyu Kingdom, Which Traded with Half of Asia for 450 Years". No account required to start.
Free app
No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
