On Jan. 2nd 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
