The streets of Shuri rise, fall, and zigzag quite dramatically . These roads have remained the same since the days of the Ryukyuan Kingdom. At that time, Shuri-jo’s castle town was built encircling the hilltop castle, so the town roads were thus built according to the hill’s natural shape.
The back alleys are a veritable maze of junctions and three-way forks. It’s said that long ago, people hated straight four-way crossings because they believed goblins could easily pass through them. Apparently the idea was that by building these three-way forks, the goblins would be stumped and exterminated by the stone wards called “Shigan-dang” placed at their junctions. As the prefecture modernized and straight roads became commonplace, the locals opposed them, stating that they liked the curved roads as they were.
You’ll have probably noticed as you walk the streets how much greenery there is. While Kingdom-Era trees were lost in WWII, new ones were planted by Okinawan returnees following the War. They didn’t just restore the town, but also reclaimed the classic aesthetics from the past. Together with locals from the surrounding regions, they gathered fragments of Ryukyuan cultural artifacts that were destroyed in the War, and built what would become the prototype for the modern Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum.
The residents of Shuri are said to be especially proud of their heritage. Around the 16th century, influential nobles known as “aji” gathered at Shuri to plan a stable future for the Ryukyuan Kingdom. Afterwards, their home grew into a prosperous town. Roads stretched out from Shuri into every region, temples and mansions ringed by stone walls and tree groves were systematically built, and Shuri-jo Castle stood at the center of it all. The “warrior pride” of old is still alive and well today, and the locals, many of whom see their homelands as status symbols, are fiercely proud of their Shuri roots. You can feel this pride as you stroll through and take in each house’s distinct style. Even if you don’t have a destination in mind, we encourage you to enjoy an aimless stroll through this town.
