Katsuren gusuku

The ruins of Katsuren castle as seen from the fourth enclosure, with a marker identifying it as a [Nationally Designated] Historic Site

A model illustrating what Katsuren may have looked like at its peak

• Built: c. 12th-13th century
• Destroyed: 1458
• Japanese/Okinawan: 勝連城 (Katsuren-jou, Katsuren gusuku / Kacchin gushiku)

Katsuren castle was an Okinawan gusuku fortress on the Katsuren (or Yokatsu) peninsula, in the northeast of central Okinawa. Built around the 12th or 13th centuries, the castle flourished in the 14th and [early] 15th centuries through overseas trade, up until its fall in 1458, as the tenth lord of the castle, Amawari, was defeated by the armies of the royal government of the Ryûkyû Kingdom.

History

The first lord of Katsuren, or Katsuren anji, was the fifth son of King Taisei (r. 1300-1308). His son and successor, the second lord of Katsuren, married his daughter to King Satto (r. 1355-1395), further strengthening the ties between the lineage of the lords of Katsuren and that of the royal family.

The fifth lord of Katsuren died without an heir, however, and so the sixth son of Ifa anji became the sixth lord of Katsuren. He too died without an heir, and the 7th and 8th lords of Katsuren came from the line of Hamakawa anji; the ninth, Mochizuki anji.

The tenth lord of Katsuren is easily the most famous. Amawari, who married Momoto Fumiagari, a daughter of King Shô Taikyû, warned the royal government of treasonous plots by Gosamaru, lord of Nakagusuku, and helped the royal armies attack and take Nakagusuku castle in 1458. However, before the end of that same year, the royal government turned on Amawari, after some number of people at court suggested that Gosamaru may have been innocent, and that Amawari's accusations may have been a plot on his own part to destroy Gosamaru, and further, that Amawari might even be plotting against the royal government himself. Thus, Katsuren was also besieged and taken by the royal government, and Amawari killed. Today, some suggest that the entire affair may have been a scheme by the royal government to eliminate both of these strong and dangerous political rivals. Others, particularly locals of the Nakagusuku and Katsuren areas, support stories presenting one side or the other as the tragic hero. Indeed, local tradition has it that earlier lords of Katsuren, and the 9th lord in particular, were tyrannical despots and drunkards, that Amawari was the popular choice and was actively supported by the local people in his overthrow of the 9th lord, and that as ruler, he was a most gracious lord who brought great prosperity to the domain. By contrast, the plot of the popular kumi udui play Nidû tichiuchi features fictional sons of Gosamaru as the protagonists, and paints Amawari as the villain against whom the two sons seek vengeance.

Amawari's widow, Momoto Fumiagari, is sometimes said to have been a granddaughter of Gosamaru, on her mother's side. According to some versions of the history, it was Momoto who, out of loyalty to her grandfather and/or to the kingdom, traveled with her attendant Oni Ôgusuku to Shuri to warn the government of Amawari's duplicity. Following Amawari's defeat and death, she then married Ôgusuku.

From the fall of the castle in 1458 through roughly the 17th century, the castle was used by the local people in some fashion, but little is known about this period in any detail.

Excavations on the grounds were begun in 1965 by the Ryukyu Government Cultural Properties Protection Agency (part of the Okinawan civil self-government under US martial Occupation), and in 1972, following the return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, the site was named a National Historic Site. The site was named in 2000 as one of the sites included within the umbrella UNESCO World Heritage Site designation "Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu." Today, the Katsuren Castle Site Maintenance Project receives funding from the Agency for Cultural Affairs (aka Bunkachô, an agency within the Japanese national government), and the cultural office of the Uruma City Board of Education is overseeing archaeological excavations and restoration efforts. Excavation efforts began in earnest in 2012, with a focus on the fourth enclosure (yon-no-kuruwa), and excavations of the eastern and northern portions of this area, and of the area immediately around the Nishihara Gate, were completed in 2015.

Layout

Katsuren is a model example of gusuku layout, with five enclosures, or kuruwa, nested into one another, moving down the hill, from the smallest and highest "first enclosure" (ichi no kuruwa), where the castle's treasures may have been kept, down to the largest and lowest sections of the castle, which served to support and protect what was located further uphill.

The first enclosure is located to the northwest, roughly 98 meters above sea level at its highest point, atop a limestone hill. From the top, one can see Kin Bay and the Pacific Ocean to the north, and the Chinen peninsula, Nakagusuku Bay, and Nakagusuku gusuku to the south. It's believed this smallest, highest, and most well-protected of the enclosures may have been used chiefly as a storage site.

The second enclosure, just down the hill from the first, held the main residence of the lord and his family, and the main administrative buildings of his court.

The fortress then continues downhill, through a third and fourth enclosure, with the fourth being at the bottom of a valley, representing the ground level of the fortress complex, and including the main gates of the complex as a whole. Beyond the fourth enclosure is the east enclosure (higashi no kuruwa), which sits on a slight elevation compared to the fourth. This overall shape of the fortress, long and narrow, with elevations at both ends and dipping in the middle, has traditionally often been compared to the image of a sailing ship. Excavations in the area of the fourth enclosure in 2012-2013 revealed foundation stones and other indications that the fourth enclosure likely once held sizable wooden buildings like the second enclosure (the main palace) did. Archaeological work in 2014-2015 then uncovered a cobblestone (ishi-tatami) path leading from the main gate of the compound, the Nishihara Gate, into the fourth enclosure. They also discovered some 73 gun emplacements, and some number of bunkers, built in the 1930s when defensive positions were being constructed across much of Okinawa Island, in anticipation of the Pacific War.

References

• "Katsuren jôseki kara Rôma teikoku, Osuman teikoku jidai no koin wo hakken," Kôhô Uruma magazine, November 2016, 2.
• Gallery labels, Yonashiro Museum of History, November 2016.