Shuri Castle is in Naha, Okinawa, Japan and is considered one of the most famous examples of Okinawan architecture. Shuri Castle was a Ryukyuan stronghold in Okinawa and represented the Ryukyu Kingdom’s Royal Palace. I was stationed in Okinawa while I was serving in the United States Marine Corps. I lived about 1 hour from Shuri Castle and would visit frequently to enjoy the extravagant courtyard plaza or have a Grand Tea Ceremony in the Royal Gardens. During my chaotic run in the U.S.’s hardest and most intense branch, Shuri Castle was a stark contrast which allowed me to find my tranquil center and enjoy life.

Buildings, such as this, were built to extort our feelings of awe and majesty. It was a royal palace used to host Kings and Emperors during times of old. Yet, I found myself revealing not in the awe of beauty, even though there was much beauty to be enjoyed, but admiring the silence and tranquility within it. Shuri Castle felt almost haunted when I visited it. The locals reveled in the silence and almost nobody spoke aloud. The movements and pace through the area was slow and not rushed. The world itself seemed to slow down in this oasis of time.  

The Okinawans clearly honored this castle as a home of their once great ancestors, and they treated it as such. To speak out loud felt like an insult. To move erratically or rush ahead was seen as uncouth. One was always expected to be a better version of themselves for it felt as if the ancestors were watching you in this house of haunted pasts. Overall, it was an experience of understanding and solemn tranquility. To be at home with the past, in order to understand who we are to be in the future.