Cherry Blossoms

Spring comes early in Okinawa. Beth took advantage of this and visited the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival. Luckily I was on call. Spurred by warmer than normal winter weather, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in the Nago area. Good timing, too, as this was the weekend for the 43rd Nago Cherry Blossom Festival.

For the Okinawa newcomer, the Cherry Blossom Festival ranks as one of the most beautiful events of the year, with Mother Nature showing her colors with the traditional flowers. Festivities are held at the base of Nago castle, the expansive home to the local Aji chieftain in the 14th century. The area is now Nago Central Park, where thousands of Taiwan cherry trees show their beauty early each year. This year more than 200,000 pink Taiwan cherries are in full bloom.

New Years

On Jan. 2^nd we visited the Shurijo Castle New Year’s Banquet.

This event is a reenactment of the traditional New Year's ceremony originally held early in the morning on New Year's Day ,attended by the king, the royal family, and senior court officials. Court dances and other Ryukyuan dances are performed to add to the New Year mood.

On the main island of Okinawa during the 14th century, three small kingdoms were formed and battles for supremacy developed. At the beginning of the 15th century, Shisho and his son Sho Hashi, from a powerful family in the southern part of the island, began to conquer the other rival states and in 1429 succeeded in unifying the Ryukyu islands. It is believed that during the process of unification he made the Shuri area his base. From that time until the establishment of the prefectural administrative system in 1879, Shurijo Castle was the center stage of the kingdom's history.

After unification of the Ryukyus by Shisho and his son Sho Hashi, Shurijo Castle became the center of the kingdom's government. Furthermore, the castle fulfilled a central role in the development of the kingdom's crucial trade links with China, the Japanese mainland, Korea, and many of the countries of Southeast Asia.

During World War II, Shurijo Castle was burned to the ground in the fierce Battle for Okinawa. A local Okinawan awareness movement and petitions made to the government in the 1980s resulted in the completed reconstruction of Shurijo Castle opening to the public in 1992.

For more information see:

http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/001/index-e.html

http://www.s-breeze.com/rakuen/syurijoE.html