Nakamura House

photo by 663highland · CC BY 2.5

photo by x768 · CC BY-SA 2.0

The thatched roofs became red tiles as the family grew richer.

You enter past a stone wall set crosswise in front of the door, to turn spirits away, for there is no main entrance. Inside you take off your shoes and walk on tatami; outside there are the granary on stilts, the stable, the stone pigsty and the well. In the kitchen the stoves are in their place, and the altar of the hearth god is in the corner where it has always been. At the end they offer you tea and a black-sugar sweet.

The house of a well-off farming family of Kitanakagusuku, built around the middle of the eighteenth century. It is the only pre-war Okinawan dwelling that has survived intact: the battle of 1945 destroyed everything else. The plot measures 1,560 square metres and the buildings 174. It was designated by the Ryūkyū Republic in 1956 and by the Japanese State in 1972.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00, last entry at 16:40, closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Five hundred yen, three hundred for junior high and high school, two hundred for elementary school; 20% discount with a disability certificate. There is a car park. ⚠️ It is not served by public transport: the nearest bus stop is half an hour away on foot, and if you have no car, combine it with Nakagusuku Castle, which is one kilometre away. You go in barefoot, on stone steps.

🚉 Nakagusuku-Jo Site · 7 min walk

Sources: nakamurahouse.jp · nakamurahouse.jp · en.japantravel.com · 4travel.jp

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