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*''Okinawan'': 城・グスク ''(gusuku/gushiku)''
''Gusuku'' are Okinawan castles or fortresses. Known especially for their long, winding stone walls, the height of ''gusuku'' construction was in the 14th century, a time of conflict on [[Okinawa Island]]. Five are included alongside a handful of other Okinawan sites in a single group [[World Heritage Site]] as "Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu]]."<ref name=unesco>"[http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/972/ Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu]." UNESCO: World Heritage Convention. Accessed 15 May 2011.</ref> Most ''gusuku'' are today in ruins; only [[Shuri castle]] has been reconstructed.
==History==
Local power-holders known as ''[[anji]]'' - who might be understood as chiefs, village heads, local lords, or by a number of other descriptors - first began to emerge in the 8th to 10th centuries. Communities became more organized and began to emerge as distinctive locales, quite possibly with walls or other fortifications separating villages from wilderness, and from one another. Though today, especially in standard Japanese or in English, the term "gusuku" is used almost exclusively to refer to a specific type of fortress, placenames preserve the fact the the term originally referred to villages, and was later used to refer to a wide variety of structures, including guardtowers and warehouses, places of worship, and tombs. Today, there are over 300 places on Okinawa which are called ''gusuku''.<ref name=journey>Kitahara Shûichi. ''A Journey to the Ryukyu Gusuku'' 琉球城紀行。 Naha: Miura Creative, 2003. p19.</ref>
''Gusuku'' construction took off in the 14th century as a few powerful ''anji'' emerged, seeking to expand their power, and fueling a period of armed conflict. Most of the largest and most famous fortresses, and those with the most impressive stone walls, date to this period.
The island was soon divided into [[Sanzan period|three kingdoms]], known as [[Hokuzan]], [[Chuzan|Chûzan]], and [[Nanzan]].
==Architecture and Layout==
Perhaps because so many are in ruins, the aspect most strongly associated with ''gusuku'' is their long, snaking stone walls. Aside from their overall long, snaking form, a few features of ''gusuku'' walls stand out. First, the gates are essentially gaps in the stone, filled in with wooden gatehouse structures, most often simply extended across the top of the opening, with heavy doors below. Though these gatehouses were often equipped with arrow-ports and gunports (see [[firearms in Ryukyu]]), the walls themselves were not, and lacking anything on the wall for defenders to hide behind while they fired on attackers, many were quite easily cut down by gunfire in the [[1609]] [[invasion of Ryukyu|invasion of Ryûkyû]] by [[samurai]] from [[Satsuma han]], for example.
The walls themselves were constructed in a number of different ways, quite similar to those employed in Japanese [[Azuchi-Momoyama period|Azuchi-Momoyama]] or [[Edo period]] castles a few centuries later.
==References==
<references/>
''Gusuku'' are Okinawan castles or fortresses. Known especially for their long, winding stone walls, the height of ''gusuku'' construction was in the 14th century, a time of conflict on [[Okinawa Island]]. Five are included alongside a handful of other Okinawan sites in a single group [[World Heritage Site]] as "Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu]]."<ref name=unesco>"[http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/972/ Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu]." UNESCO: World Heritage Convention. Accessed 15 May 2011.</ref> Most ''gusuku'' are today in ruins; only [[Shuri castle]] has been reconstructed.
==History==
Local power-holders known as ''[[anji]]'' - who might be understood as chiefs, village heads, local lords, or by a number of other descriptors - first began to emerge in the 8th to 10th centuries. Communities became more organized and began to emerge as distinctive locales, quite possibly with walls or other fortifications separating villages from wilderness, and from one another. Though today, especially in standard Japanese or in English, the term "gusuku" is used almost exclusively to refer to a specific type of fortress, placenames preserve the fact the the term originally referred to villages, and was later used to refer to a wide variety of structures, including guardtowers and warehouses, places of worship, and tombs. Today, there are over 300 places on Okinawa which are called ''gusuku''.<ref name=journey>Kitahara Shûichi. ''A Journey to the Ryukyu Gusuku'' 琉球城紀行。 Naha: Miura Creative, 2003. p19.</ref>
''Gusuku'' construction took off in the 14th century as a few powerful ''anji'' emerged, seeking to expand their power, and fueling a period of armed conflict. Most of the largest and most famous fortresses, and those with the most impressive stone walls, date to this period.
The island was soon divided into [[Sanzan period|three kingdoms]], known as [[Hokuzan]], [[Chuzan|Chûzan]], and [[Nanzan]].
==Architecture and Layout==
Perhaps because so many are in ruins, the aspect most strongly associated with ''gusuku'' is their long, snaking stone walls. Aside from their overall long, snaking form, a few features of ''gusuku'' walls stand out. First, the gates are essentially gaps in the stone, filled in with wooden gatehouse structures, most often simply extended across the top of the opening, with heavy doors below. Though these gatehouses were often equipped with arrow-ports and gunports (see [[firearms in Ryukyu]]), the walls themselves were not, and lacking anything on the wall for defenders to hide behind while they fired on attackers, many were quite easily cut down by gunfire in the [[1609]] [[invasion of Ryukyu|invasion of Ryûkyû]] by [[samurai]] from [[Satsuma han]], for example.
The walls themselves were constructed in a number of different ways, quite similar to those employed in Japanese [[Azuchi-Momoyama period|Azuchi-Momoyama]] or [[Edo period]] castles a few centuries later.
==References==
<references/>
