Okinawa · Naha ShuriNo.687★★Open in map →

Tamaudun Royal Mausoleum

historyOff the trail — and worth it

The royal tomb of the second Sho dynasty, walled in coral limestone a few minutes west of Shuri Castle in Naha. Three stone chambers, a courtyard spread with crushed coral, and the stele that named who could be buried here.

FromNaha Airport Station
~45 minYui Rail monorail + 15 min walk
Get off atShuri Station (Yui Rail monorail)
On foot
Tamaudun Royal Mausoleum

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Shuri draws crowds, but most of them are aimed at the castle further uphill, and the mausoleum keeps its own gate and its own admission. It is walled, and nothing of it shows from the road, so it reads as a stop you make on purpose rather than one you fall into. Inside, the courtyard absorbs sound and there is nowhere to queue.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

The stele in the front court, Tamaudunそらみみ / CC BY-SA 4.0

Hoenkanthe ticket house by the entrance, with a basement room on how the tomb is built
The east guardhouseAgari-nu-ubanju, where the tomb keepers worked and visiting kings rested
The stele in the front courtan inscribed stone naming those whose descendants could be buried here
The middle chamberwhere the body lay until the bones could be washed, under the Ryukyuan rite
The east chamberthe resting place of the kings and their queens once the washing was done

How to actually get there

Naha Airport Station → Shuri Station (Yui Rail monorail, direct, no transfer).
Shuri Station → Tamaudun (walk about 15 min west toward Shurijo Park).
Buy the ticket at Hoenkan and read the basement display before going through to the courts.
Carry on uphill to Shuri Castle, where the main hall is being rebuilt and the work site is open to view.

Yui Rail monorail, direct from Naha Airport: Naha Airport Station → Shuri Station on the Yui Rail monorail, one seat the whole way with no transfer, and daytime trains come often enough that you need not plan around the timetable. From Shuri Station it is about a 15-minute walk west. Allow roughly 45 minutes door to door.
Return from Shuri Station: The same monorail runs back to the airport with no transfer. The last airport-bound train leaves before midnight, so check the platform board if you have stayed for dinner in Shuri. City buses also run down into central Naha from the Shurijo-koen-iriguchi stop.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Tamaudun sits a short walk west of Shuri Castle, hidden from the road behind a high wall of coral limestone. Pass the gate and the ground opens into two courts, the inner one spread with crushed coral, with three stone chambers facing you across it. The building is masonry imitating architecture: the stone is cut and shaped to stand for the plank-shingled roofs of a Ryukyuan palace of the period. Nothing here was made to be entered by the living, and nothing about it is decorative.

How to enjoy it

The gate opens at 9:00 and closes at 18:00, with last entry at 17:30, every day of the year. Come in the morning and the walls throw half the courtyard into shade, which is when the cut stone reads most clearly. Shuri Castle stands a short walk uphill, so the two fit into one morning.

Background & history

Sho Shin had the tomb built in 1501 to reinter the bones of his father, Sho En, and it became the burial place of the dynasty that followed. The stele raised in the front court named nine people whose descendants could be laid here, and closed with a curse on anyone who broke the rule. Concentrated shelling late in the Second World War wrecked the east and west chambers, and the restoration that gives the site its present form began in 1974. It joined the World Heritage list in December 2000, and on 25 December 2018 it became the first building in Okinawa designated a National Treasure.

Before you go

Cash: Admission is 300 yen for adults and 150 yen for children of junior-high age and below, as posted by Naha City at the time of checking; pre-school children with a guardian enter free. The Yui Rail takes OKICA and nationally interoperable IC cards as well as cash.
Good to know: The mausoleum closes while a storm warning is in force during a typhoon approach and reopens once the grounds have been checked — Naha City posts this on the site's own page. Otherwise it is open every day of the year. The courtyard is open stone with no shade.
Another way: By city bus from central Naha, routes 1 and 17 and the suburban route 46 stop at Shurijo-koen-iriguchi, about five minutes on foot; the Shuri castle-town route 8 stops at Shurijo-mae, about one minute away.
After you get off: From Shuri Station, walk west along the main road following signs for Shurijo Park, about fifteen minutes. Tamaudun stands set back behind a coral-limestone wall a short way past the park entrance.