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Pillars, golden dragons and polychrome clouds

The Seiden of Shuri Castle in the times of Ryukyu Kingdom was presumably decorated with highly noble pictures and royal colors. The first and second floors of the Seiden were called "Usauka," the king's thrones. Usasuka is the major portion of the Seiden and is of architectural importance. The symbolic decoration of the king's throne was "golden dragons and polychrome clouds," which express a sacred imaginative animal, dragons, and polychrome clouds to carry the dragons. The design was normally chosen by the person who made it. However, the intention of the reconstruction of Shuri Castle was to reproduce what it was in the 18th century in every detail.

Research and studies were conducted in neighboring countries as well as Japan to find out the culture, economy, and politics and the relation to neighboring nations during the kingdom. The excavated articles and walls of existing building structures in Okinawa were examined. The image of golden dragons and polychrome clouds was then reproduced based on the studies and research. In drawing the dragons, the origin, history and patterns were also studied. There are a number of stories to explain the origin of dragons. According to reference materials in China, a powerful ruler was praised as a god when the society was drastically changing from a maternal family system to a patrilineal society. The dragon was created as a symbolic animal during this period. Although the image of a mystic animal dragon varies from one to another, after close study of dragon patterns during the Ming dynasty to Shin dynasty periods and photo surveys of Sogenji and Enkakuji temples, the golden dragons and polychrome clouds were accurately reproduced, taking into account the building structures, dragon pillars, and engraved dragon patterns that remained in the Shuri Castle site.

Sketch of the pattern of dragons going upward

Based on these studies and research activities, the coloring team decided the colors and patterns of the image of golden dragons and polychrome clouds and miniatures of the images on the first floor (a rough sketch, half-size) and the second floor (a rough sketch, one-fifth size) were made before the reconstruction. Studies revealed that a dragon pillar usually had an image of an island on waves on the lower part and dragons on clouds on the upper part. However, dragon pillars of the Usasuka were regarded as having no waves or islands based on the analysis of photos taken before repair in the Showa period. It was presumably because of political consideration since the Ryukyu Kingdom was a vassal state of China. The ocean and rocks are drawn to express the dependence of the Ryukyus on China.

- Extracts from the "Report on the Production of Golden Dragons and Polychrome Clouds" designed for the Seiden of Shuri Castle (March 1989) - Koin Maeda

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