Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum

photo by LordAmeth · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by Naha Mama Pavilionz · CC0

The building takes the shape of a グスク: the walls of a castle to tell the story of an island.

The building, opened in 2007, is designed to recall the curved walls of a gusuku (the stone castles of the Ryukyu Kingdom), so that the architecture itself introduces the museum's theme before you even go in. The collections trace the natural and cultural history of Okinawa from prehistory to the post-war period, including testimony from the 1945 battle; the art museum sets alongside them works by contemporary Okinawan artists.

Created in 2007 by merging the old Prefectural Museum with the Art Museum, it is the island's main general museum: geology, archaeology, ethnography and art on a single route. It is in the Omoromachi neighbourhood, developed on the land returned by the American military base in the 1990s.

ℹ️ Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday 9:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30); Friday and Saturday 9:00–20:00 (last entry 19:30). Closed on Mondays (except public holidays and 23 June, Okinawa Memorial Day, in which case it closes on the following weekday) and over the year-end/New Year period. Museum: adults 530 yen, students 260/150 yen. Art museum: adults 400 yen. Free admission for those aged 70 and over and for school-age residents.

🚉 おもろまち駅前広場3 · 10 min walk

Sources: okimu.jp · okimu.jp

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