Sefa-utaki
Interesting facts
- Sēfa means highest rank, so the popular name amounts to the greatest of all utaki; its formal sacred name is Kimigatake, Nushigatake no Ibi.
- Inside Sangūi lies Chōnohana, the highest-ranking prayer spot, where the creation goddess Amamikyu was believed to descend by way of a fan-palm tree.
- The grove hosted the Oaraori, the inauguration ritual in which each new Kikoe-ōgimi, the kingdom's high priestess, formally took up her office.
- The famous view from Sangūi towards Kudaka Island exists only because a corner of its rock walls collapsed in the early modern period.
- Excavations in the grove yielded Chinese celadon from the Longquan kilns, magatama beads of gold, jade and glass, and old coins, now a national Important Cultural Property.
- The surrounding woodland is one of the finest surviving forests in southern Okinawa, with rare ferns and orchids, and largely escaped the devastation of 1945.
- Craters left by naval shells from the Battle of Okinawa still scar the grove, and one of them can be seen from the visitor path.
- After Okinawa was absorbed into Japan, the grove was for a time made to serve as a Shinto shrine, part of a wider policy of assimilation.
Why it is worth it
Sēfa-utaki is a sacred grove on the Chinen Peninsula in the south of Okinawa Island, where paths lead through dense subtropical forest to worship places set against towering limestone rocks. Its innermost and most prestigious area is Sangūi, originally an open space walled by rock on three sides, where three places of worship are concentrated and from which the eye travels across the sea to Kudaka Island.
Utaki are the sacred places of the indigenous Ryukyuan religion, usually groves or rocks rather than buildings, and Sēfa-utaki was the most sacred of all in the Ryukyu Kingdom. Its ceremonies were in the hands of the Kikoe-ōgimi, the highest priestess of the state. The site probably took its formal shape in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under King Shō Shin, who centralised the kingdom's religious hierarchy. According to the Chūzan Seikan, the kingdom's official chronicle, the creation goddess Amamikyu came to Okinawa at this place, and Kudaka Island, visible from Sangūi, was regarded as the land where she first descended.
Like all utaki in the Ryukyu Kingdom, Sēfa-utaki was closed to men; commoners could go no further than the entrance, and even the king had to adjust his dress to that of a woman to proceed inside. Several of its worship places bear the same names as halls within Shuri Castle, the royal palace, underlining the link between the grove and the court. In 2000 Sēfa-utaki was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, and in 2018 it was designated a National Historic Site of Japan.
Getting there
Sēfa-utaki lies in the city of Nanjō, about 7 km from its centre, in the southeast of Okinawa Island. The nearest airport is Naha Airport (OKA), about 19 km away in a straight line; the site is reached by road from Naha along the southern coast of the island.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Sefa-utaki, is a historical sacred space, overlooking Kudaka Island, that served as one of the key locations of worship in the native religion of Ryukyuan for millennia. It was designated a National Historic Site in 2018. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu in the city of Nanjō, Okinawa, Japan.
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