Shimashi Ozato Castle

History

According to the Chuzanseifu(中山世譜), Shimashi-Ozato Castle was founded by the Shimashi-Ozato Aji(Lord) in the 14th century.

In 1402, Sho Hashi, the lord of Sashiki Castle, conquered Shimashi-Ozato Castle. After Sho Hashi conquered the three “Sanzan Domains” and unified them to form the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1429, the Seiden (main palace) at Shimashi-Ozato Castle became an outlying imperial palace. Shimashi-Ozato Castle’s Seiden was the second biggest palace in the Ryukyu Kingdom after Shuri Castle’s Seiden.

Archaeological investigation in 1991 found pottery, coins, and other artefacts dating to the 14th to 16th century at the castle ruin and former castle town.

Visit Notes

Shimashi-Ozato Castle is around an 8-minute walk from the Nishihara Iriguchi bus stop after getting there by a mini-bus. They run from Nanjo City Hall roughly once every two hours. This castle ruin is quite extensive with lots of sacred shrines in and around the castle ruin. When I visited, there were some other people visiting the castle ruin just for the shrines.

All the photos uploaded with this profile were taken in early May 2022.

RaymondW wrote this castle profile and contributed all the photos.

Loading map...

{"format":"leaflet","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"limit":500,"offset":0,"link":"all","sort":["order"],"order":[],"headers":"show","mainlabel":"","intro":"","outro":"","searchlabel":"... further results","default":"","import-annotation":false,"width":"auto","height":"350px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"Darkred18.png","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":false,"defzoom":14,"layers":["Esri.WorldTopoMap"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","showtitle":false,"hidenamespace":true,"template":"InfoWindowProfile","userparam":"","activeicon":"","pagelabel":false,"ajaxcoordproperty":"","ajaxquery":"","locations":[{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 1.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/9/9d/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/9/9d/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/9/9d/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_1.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18588,"lon":127.76055,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 2.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/5/5c/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/5/5c/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/5/5c/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_2.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18626,"lon":127.76073,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 3.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/3/30/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/3/30/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/3/30/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_3.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18625,"lon":127.76067,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 4.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/4/4a/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/4/4a/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/4/4a/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_4.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18637,"lon":127.76052,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 5.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/4/43/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/4/43/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/4/43/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_5.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18643,"lon":127.75993,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 6.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/e/e6/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/e/e6/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/e/e6/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_6.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18545,"lon":127.75961,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 7.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/8/80/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/8/80/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/8/80/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_7.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18585,"lon":127.76002,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Shimashi-Ozato Castle Ray 8.jpg\" src=\"../images/thumb/2/21/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg/125px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/2/21/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg/188px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg 1.5x, ../images/thumb/2/21/Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg/250px-Shimashi-Ozato_Castle_Ray_8.jpg 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":26.18551,"lon":127.76047,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"}],"imageLayers":[]}

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Castle Profile
English Name	Shimashi Ozato Castle
Japanese Name	島添大里城
Founder	Shimashi-Ozato Aji
Year Founded	14th century
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Designations	National Historic Site
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Features	stone walls
Visitor Information
Access	Bus
Visitor Information	Free
Time Required	1 to 1.5 hours
Website	https://www.kankou-nanjo.okinawa/bunka/details/3
Location	Nanjo City, Okinawa Prefecture
Coordinates	26° 11' 11.51" N, 127° 45' 36.04" E
Loading map... {"type":"TERRAIN","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps","width":"auto","height":"200px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"Castlemarker.png","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":6,"layers":[],"controls":[""],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":26.186530555556,"lon":127.76001111111,"icon":"../images/1/1e/Castlemarker.png"}]}
Admin
Added to Jcastle	2023
Contributor	RaymondW
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed

4.00

(one vote)

Add your comment

Jcastle.info welcomes all comments. If you do not want to be anonymous, register or log in. It is free.

Sort by date Sort by score

Enable comment auto-refresher

You are ignoring the author of this comment

Show comment | Manage ignore list

RaymondWDaimyo

11 days ago

Score 1

This Ryukyuan gusuku ruin way exceeded my expectations. I had expected just some collapsed stone walls, but the amount of stone wall remnants remaining is quite impressive as is the size of this Ryukyuan fortress. My wife and spent nearly 90 minutes on site exploring its stone wall ruins and multiple shrines located in and around the castle, but I reckon we could have done with another 30 minutes as there were a lot of ruins to see and photograph.

Permalink | Reply