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Katsuren Castle Ruins

Well knownIn most guidebooks for this region — but rarely with the practical detail.

Researched and written by Hinato

KatsurenAmawariWorld HeritageRoman coinsUruma

Photo: kanegen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · original

Katsuren Castle Ruins looks different depending on the season, the weather, and the time of day — none of which a single photo can tell you.

Katsuren stands on a limestone ridge on the Katsuren peninsula and was the seat of Amawari, a lord who rose from nothing, married a king's daughter, destroyed his rival Gosamaru at Nakagusuku and was himself destroyed in 1458. It is the oldest of the World Heritage gusuku and the most dramatically sited: four enclosures climbing a narrow spine with the sea on both sides.

In 2016 excavation here produced something genuinely startling — four Roman coins from the third and fourth centuries AD and an Ottoman coin from the seventeenth, in a fifteenth-century Okinawan castle. How they arrived is unresolved and the find is displayed at the site's visitor centre. Entry to the ruins is free, the climb takes twenty minutes, and the view from the top enclosure is the best on this coast.

Before you go

Access hours

Ruins open during daylight hours | Visitor centre keeps its own hours

Closed: Open year-round

Entry fee

Ruins free | Visitor centre charged separately | Free parking

Best time to visit

Year-round | Winter and spring for the climb; summer is exposed

Time to allow

60–90 minutes

Making the trip

Directions

3908 Haebaru, Katsuren, Uruma, on the Katsuren peninsula. Car recommended. The castle ruins are free to enter. The Katsuren Castle site visitor centre at the foot has exhibits including the Roman and Ottoman coins found in the 2016 excavation and keeps its own hours and charges. Free parking.

What to bring

**See the coins.** Four Roman coins from the third and fourth centuries and an Ottoman coin were excavated here in 2016 and are displayed at the visitor centre. Nobody has satisfactorily explained how they got to a fifteenth-century Okinawan castle. **The ruins are free.** Unusual among the World Heritage gusuku. The visitor centre charges separately. **It is a climb.** Four enclosures up a narrow ridge with steps throughout. Twenty minutes up, and exposed the whole way — hats and water in summer. **Learn who Amawari was first.** He is a genuinely complicated figure, cast as villain in the official histories and as hero locally, and the site is much more interesting once you know the argument. **Combine with the Kaichu Doro.** The causeway to the offshore islands starts nearby, and Hamahiga and Miyagi are ten to twenty minutes further on.

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