VALUE VILLAGE · DISCOVERY

Discover Japan

Explore shrines, travel, art and industry

Compiled from supplied material, not independently verified item by item. Confirm opening hours, access and accuracy with the operator. Counts are records, not unique places.

KeywordPrefectureCategoryThemeAreaTypeReset filters

209 records · 3/9

沖縄県 · Tourism

Kabira Bay

石垣市八重山

The colour of the water changes with the hour. Black pearls are farmed here, so swimming is not allowed.

沖縄県 · Tourism

Himeyuri

糸満市本島南部

It carries the memory of the Battle of Okinawa. The Cornerstone of Peace bears 240,000 names.

沖縄県 · Tourism

Kouri Island

今帰仁村本島北部

A bridge 1,960 metres long crosses the sea. The island carries a Ryukyuan version of the Adam and Eve legend.

沖縄県 · Tourism

Manzamo

恩納村本島中部

A Ryukyu limestone cliff shaped like an elephant's trunk. Its name says it could seat ten thousand.

沖縄県 · Tourism

Eisa

沖縄市ほか本島中部

A dance that sends off the ancestors at the old Bon. Dancers beat drums as they move through the village.

沖縄県 · Tourism

Bingata & Yachimun

那覇市本島南部

Stencil dyeing that carries the colours of the south, and the pottery of Tsuboya. Kilns line Yachimun Street.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum

那覇市本島南部

Walled in limestone like a Ryukyuan castle, holding both the kingdom's record and the systematic collection of postwar Okinawan art.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Sakima Art Museum

宜野湾市本島中部

A private museum on land reclaimed from a US base; its roof stair splits into six steps and twenty-three, for the 23rd of June.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Shuri Castle

那覇市本島南部

A palace mixing Chinese and Japanese form into something Ryukyuan; burned in 1945, rebuilt, burned again in 2019, and now rising a third time.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Tamaudun Mausoleum

那覇市本島南部

The royal mausoleum, its stone roof carved to imitate wooden shingles - the first building in Okinawa designated National Treasure.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Sonohyan Utaki Stone Gate

那覇市本島南部

Shaped as a gate but never walked through - a structure built purely so the king could pray at it before leaving the castle.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Shikinaen

那覇市本島南部

A royal villa built to receive Chinese envoys, setting a Chinese hexagonal pavilion in a Japanese stroll garden.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Tsuboya Pottery Street

那覇市本島南部

The quarter where the kingdom gathered all its kilns; it escaped the war, and workshops still line the paved street.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Tsuboya Pottery Museum

那覇市本島南部

A kiln found during construction was left in place and built around, shown underground beneath the galleries.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Ryukyu Bingata

那覇市本島南部

Stencilled paste resist with pigment rubbed in - a meeting of Chinese, Southeast Asian and Japanese dyeing, in colours built for southern light.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Shuri Textiles

那覇市本島南部

Woven for the royal house; one of its weaves could be worn only by the queen and princesses.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Ryukyu Lacquerware

那覇市本島南部

Its tsuikin technique - lacquer kneaded with pigment and applied like clay - exists nowhere else; the court ran the workshops.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Sanshin

那覇市本島南部

The Chinese sanxian became the sanshin here and the shamisen in Japan; its neck has seven named forms.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Kinjocho Stone Path

那覇市本島南部

Part of a royal highway; 238 metres survived the war, walled in stone between great trees.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Nakamura Family Residence

北中城村本島中部

One of the few gentry houses to survive the war intact, its walls and windbreak trees complete against the typhoons.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Nakagusuku Castle Ruins

中城村本島中部

Three different masonry techniques stand in one castle; Perry's expedition surveyed it and recorded their astonishment at the fit.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Katsuren Castle Ruins

うるま市本島中部

Terraced up a headland; excavation turned up Roman and Ottoman coins, reopening the question of how far its trade reached.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Zakimi Castle Ruins

読谷村本島中部

It holds Okinawa's oldest stone arch, and its walls curve continuously - almost no straight line anywhere.

沖縄県 · Art & museums

Nakijin Castle Ruins

今帰仁村本島北部

A kilometre and a half of wall following the limestone terrain rather than correcting it, so the whole line undulates.