Taiwan is donating five rare red cypress trees (representing 14% of its total harvest) to help Japan reconstruct the historic Shuri Castle. Wood Central understands that the gesture of friendship comes after Japan donated more than 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry.
In October 2019, at least seven buildings, including the main structure at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, burned down. At the time, the BBC reported that firefighters battled flames for over 10 hours with the wooden Castle, built 500 years ago and completely restored following the Second World War.
“The many wooden structures and the [recently reapplied] lacquer may have also had an effect,” an unidentified officer told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper at the time of the fire. Once the seat of the Ryukyu dynasty, Shuri Castle sits on top of a hill overlooking Naha, Okinawa’s capital, and is surrounded by curved stone walls.
One resident said the Castle was “god-like”.
“To us, the Shuri Castle is a god-like existence,” 84-year-old Toyoko Miyazato told the Asahi Shimbun. “I am so sad I don’t know what to say.”
Parts of the Castle have been recreated using 3D printing.
In the months after the fire, Google Arts & Culture and the Okinawa government launched a digital project called Reconstructing Shurijo Castle, which involved 3D reconstructed models of Seiden Temple, the main temple of Shurijo Castle.
The model was built by engineers, students, computer vision experts, and VR researchers who collected 80,000 photos shared by 3,000 people worldwide to preserve the legacy of Ryukyu culture for future generations.
The restoration of the castle began in November 2022, three years to the day after the fire destroyed the tourist destination. In 2020, the Japanese Times reported on the rebuild’s obstacles, which included securing the wood, acquiring Shuri Castle’s ownership, and revising a city revitalization plan for the area around the site.
Japan had previously requested that timber be donated from Taiwan plantations, as the original Castle was built with Taiwanese cypress. Taiwan has long banned harvesting in natural forest areas, with its plantations managed by the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency.
In 2020, Taiwan’s plantations produced 256.98 cubic metres of red cypress, and the five logs donated to Japan would total about 3.86 cubic metres (14% of the 2020 harvest).
The current Castle was rebuilt and opened to the public in 1992. It was registered as a World Heritage site in 2000 and was the site for the Okinawa Summit in the same year, appearing in commemorative 2000-yen notes.
