Sad news from Okinawa: Shuri Castle, once the heart of Okinawa's Ryukyu Kingdom, destroyed in fire | The Japan Times I'm surprised that this hasn't been discussed here yet. I was quite impressed with Shuri Castle when I visited Okinawa about 10 years ago. Although the original castle was destroyed in WWII, the most recent Shuri Castle had deep cultural and historical significance. Especially for martial artists. I hope that they can rebuild again. My Karate instructor is on his way to Okinawa for his first time. Literally in the air at this moment. He planned this trip back in June. It's unfortunate that he will not be able to see it.
I heard about this yesterday, and it is very sad. I have only been in Japan at Narita waiting for a flight to Beijing, but I always wanted to spend time in Japan and see the castles.
Wow, that was some blaze. Can't they rebuild this though? Didn't they draft and store elaborate architecture diagrams of these buildings? They should be able to reconstruct a perfect replica.
They should be able to rebuild. The one that burnt down was actually a replica. The original one stood from the 14th century until it was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. The Shuri Castle that we knew was rebuilt in 1958. There seems to be a strong desire to rebuild. It appears that someone has already started a crowdfunding campaign to facilitate it: Crowdfunding drive in Japan to help rebuild Okinawa's Shuri Castle raises over ¥250 million | The Japan Times
The news have been all over my Facebook feed for the past days. So sad. I was able to visit the castle twice, last time this July. It was an amazing building with a wonderful tea room. It is such a shame it burt down. Apparently there were a lot of socuments and artifacts of historical value that were lost in the fire, too. I hope it is going to be rebuilt in the future.
