All About's Guide to Naha

Naha

Naha (那覇) sits along the western coast of Okinawa's southern tip, and is a small city by Japanese standards. With a population of some 320,000, it pales in comparison to the likes of other capital cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Plus, Naha's seaside location gives it a uniquely relaxed vibe for a major Japanese city, and the sub-tropical flora and fauna and sandy beaches along the waters of the East China Sea make it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. But the city itself offers far more than just beach breezes and fun in the sun.

As a collection of southern islands, Okinawa has hot summers and incredibly mild winters, though it is pretty humid all year round. It gets a fair amount of precipitation throughout the year, but especially in June and September, which are common rainy seasons in Japan.

Naha is Okinawa's main hub, and the region's center of politics, commerce and culture. At one time Okinawa was called the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429-1875), which had strong links to mainland Asia. After being officially subsumed by Japan at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) and then falling under U.S. military control in the wake of World War II, modern Naha is now a vibrant fusion of all three cultures.

Ryukyu History
The ancient Ryukyu Islands were split into three separate domains (Hokuzan, Chuzan and Nanzan) until the year 1429, when Sho Hashi consolidated power to create the unified Ryukyu Kingdom. The capital was positioned at Shuri Castle, which still sits elegantly above the city in present-day Naha.

In part due to active trade with mainland China, many Chinese immigrants made their way to Ryukyu, and with them came knowledge, technology, manpower, resources that (unsurprisingly) helped shape the cultural development of the islands. The religious and spiritual iconography of modern Naha is highly representative of that which you would see in ancient China—common sights include stone-sculpted lions though to ward off evil (called shiisaa・シーサー in Japanese) line doorways, and carved wooden dragons snake along bridges and up the sides of buildings.

The Ryukyu Kingdom's location between Kyushu and China helped it become a thriving center of international trade, particularly between the Ming and Qing dynasties of China, and the rulers of the Satsuma domain in current-day Miyazaki Prefecture. As with many historical alliances, this eventually led to bloodshed. In 1609, the feudal lord of Satsuma led an invasion to Ryukyu when they refused to help Toyotomi Hideyoshi in his attempts to conquer Korea (a vassal of China at the time). The Kingdom effectively lost its independence, yet the Sho family continued their reign for another 250 years.

Its international reach didn't stop there however. Some scholars—like Gregory Smits in his book Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics—claim that the Ryukyu Kingdom was deliberately allowed to thrive as a pseudo-independent state by the Shogun. The purpose of this was to act as an "information importer" during the years of Japan's policy of sakoku (鎖国・"national isolation"), which lasted about 220 years from 1663. According to Smits, this was a clandestine act; the Japanese wanted Okinawa to appear an independent state to their Chinese adversaries.

Regardless of intentions, Ryukyu was ordered to cut all ties with China around 1875 (during the Meiji Period), and four years later the Kingdom was officially annexed as the islands of Okinawa Prefecture.

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