savaster

Island of Gods 3

Added 2023-08-25 13:00:07 +0000 UTC

Here is a pic of Katsuren Castle on Okinawa main island, once the home of a major chieftain of the late Ryukyu kingdoms. One unique feature about castles in Okinawa is that defense is not necessarily its main objective (which I'm sure would sound very odd). Besides being a political and military center, a castle is also a common ground where people gather and sing, dance, and pray, wishing well for themselves and their families as well as their rulers and priestesses. A castle's main quarters would have a sacred house (utaki) for prayers, where the priestesses would bathe and do their rituals for the gods. As Okinawa society was fundamentally matrilineal (i.e. passes on from mother to daughter), a chieftain's daughters may train to be priestesses and later take the ablest men of the kingdom as their grooms.

These all sound like plots from Avatar: the Last Airbender or something, but when I was visiting I noticed a group of locals gathered around an array of stones called seat of the gods, chanting. The local high school has a dance troupe that does practices within the castle. Thus surprisingly, traditions of Ryukyu live on here to this day.

(Photo by Aster)