Map: GSI Japan Shikina-en was the largest royal villa of the Ryukyu Kingdom, completed in 1799 and used for royal rest, ritual hospitality, and the reception of envoys from Qing China. Its pond circuit, palace rooms, springs, arched stone bridges, hexagonal pavilion, subtropical planting, and borrowed views combined Ryukyuan court life with deliberately selected Chinese visual references. The garden's present serenity is also a postwar achievement. Almost every building was destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa, and Naha City carried out a long restoration from 1975 to 1996. The result preserves historical ground, water, stone, vegetation, and reconstructed architecture as distinct but connected forms of evidence.
