Katsuren gusuku

• 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, which was built around the 12th or 13th centuries, and flourished in the 14th and [early] 15th centuries through overseas trade. The castle fell in 1458, as the tenth lord of the castle, Amawari, was attacked by the armies of the royal government of the Ryûkyû Kingdom and was defeated. From then 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.

References

• "Katsuren jôseki kara Rôma teikoku, Osuman teikoku jidai no koin wo hakken," Kôhô Uruma magazine, November 2016, 2.