Seven years after a large fire destroyed Shuri Castle, students at a high school beside the site are writing their own picture guides to the castle for younger children. The rebuilt main hall is due to open to the public on November 23.
At Okinawa Prefectural Shuri High School, a short walk from the castle, students gather after class and work on handmade sketchbooks filled with bright illustrations and large lettering. They have run guide activities at the castle before. This time they plan to lead pupils from the nearby Josai Elementary School, the first time they have guided elementary school children.
The students are changing how they write so younger children can follow. Miwa Tana said she had rewritten sentences in simpler language and turned some of them into questions rather than statements, so that children think along with the guide.
“We're changing the wording bit by bit, not just teaching but using a question style where we think together.”Miwa Tana, Shuri High School student
Riko Nagamine said the guides rely on pictures more than kanji, so that children can understand by looking. Kosuke Kamiya said the students want to work out for themselves which information matters, and to keep the writing short enough that children can enjoy it.
A fire students remember from elementary school
The fire broke out before dawn on October 31, 2019, and burned down seven buildings including the main hall. The castle had been praised for its beauty as a "giant piece of Ryukyu lacquerware" — a reference to the lacquer craft of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which ruled the islands from Shuri until the 19th century. Its loss shocked people across the prefecture. The students were in elementary school at the time, and the scene has stayed with them.
“My mother woke me up suddenly and said Shuri Castle was burning. I thought it was a lie, and when I turned on the TV it was burning. I felt anxious about whether we would really see that impressive main hall again.”Hinaka Tokashiki, Shuri High School student
Over the seven years, the students have watched craftsmen bring back a main hall finished in lacquer. Rasa Shimomura said tourists have been visibly increasing, and that she sees tour buses pass in front of the school. She said she is happy to feel that more visitors are coming this year than when she was a first-year student.