NAHA -- One year after a fire destroyed eight structures including the main hall at Shuri Castle in Naha, items found in the ruins of the fire went on show at the castle Saturday.
Many tourists and locals visited Shurijo Castle Park, where an exhibition opened Saturday in a room behind the Seiden main hall. Visitors looked at decorative items such as tiles that survived the raging inferno, which burned down a substantial part of the castle on Oct. 31, 2019. A firefighting drill was also held, and people renewed their vow to rebuild the castle based on lessons learned from the fire.
The exhibition is part of restoration efforts, as it shows the process of reconstruction and aims to maintain public attention. The Okinawa prefectural government and other entities set up the prefabricated exhibition room, which is about 170 square meters and displays five types of embellishments that decorated the roofs and stairs of the castle and were damaged in the fire.
"We collected these items from the ruins of the fire. It was heart-wrenching," said Yasuyuki Uezu, a 51-year-old curator of the Okinawa Churashima Foundation, which oversees the park. "We hope people give thought to reconstruction by looking at such items that indicate the devastation of the fire."
All four lion-shaped ornaments on the roof of the Seiden fell off in the fire. Only one of them, which is being displayed, still has eyes and a nose after the fire and its face is blackened with scorch marks. Fragments from the Seiden's parapet and pieces of its pillars decorated with carved dragons have also been put on show.
A large screen 7.5 meters wide and 2.2 meters high has been installed at the Yohokoriden hall, which escaped the fire and is located near the exhibition room. Images of Shuri Castle before the fire and the castle's history from the Ryukyu Kingdom era were shown on the screen.
-- Visitor numbers hit by pandemic
Over the past year, Shuri Castle was forced to close temporarily not only due to the fire but also the spread of the novel coronavirus. The number of visitors to the castle was zero in May, while the figure stood at about 18,000 in September, down 90% from the previous year. On Saturday, however, many people visited the castle, taking photos in front of the Shureimon gate and looking at the ruins of the fire.
On the same day, the Naha City Fire Department held a firefighting drill at 5:30 a.m. before dawn with about 70 people, including firefighters and employees of the Okinawa Churashima Foundation.
In the drill, a fire was assumed to have started at a ticket booth at the Kofukumon gate in the park. As the fire alarm blared, a security guard swiftly alerted the authorities and extinguished the fire with a hydrant, which was placed near the gate. After rushing to the scene, the firefighters extended a hose attached to a water tank about 200 meters away and quickly sprayed water.
In last year's fire, the walls of the castle prevented firefighting vehicles from approaching the Seiden hall where the fire started. As it also took time to manually connect hoses from a fire cistern at the time, during the drill, hoses were carried in an electric wheelbarrow.
"While being cautious not to have fires occur again, we'll continue to conduct drills that simulate various situations," said the chief of the fire department's fire defense and control section.
Meanwhile, a projection mapping event was held Friday at the park. Images of the Seiden hall before it was destroyed as well as that of a dragon dancing to music were projected onto the walls and other parts of the castle.
"I didn't feel like visiting [the castle] after the fire, but I want to see the magnificent Seiden looking like these images soon," said a 65-year-old man from Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, who visited the park with his family.
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