Nakagusuku Castle was built to reinforce protection of the kingdom. While the surroundings of the main gate are concave, you can see circular holes throughout the building that were meant to allow the soldiers of the castle to shoot through and set a trap for opposing forces coming to attack Nakagusuku.Here is where the real secrets lies. Nakagusuku Castle was built in the 14th century. In other words, before guns were imported into Tanegashima in the 15th century, the kingdom of Ryukyu already had access to guns.

With that being said, these guns at the time didn’t have the capability to take someone’s life. The bullets would fly out with a loud sound and go about 50m before falling to the ground. Instead of killing, these guns were used to train the royal horses. They would use the sound of the gun to startle the horses so that should something startle them on the battlefield, they would learn to retaliate. This was their main aim.

While Nakagusuku was built for protection and almost impossible to penetrate, some may notice that the front gate, in comparison to the back gate, hasn’t been fortified to the same extent. This is because the person who built Nakagusuku is Gosamaru, a loyal retainer to the Imperial family. To him, the importance lied in strengthening the gate which faced Katsuren Castle, the back gate. He didn’t foresee the need to strengthen the front gate since it faced in the direction of Shuri Castle. Maybe this was a conscious choice for Gosamaru to symbolize he had no intentions of making an enemy of the royal family. Who knows?