Tamaudun (玉陵, タマウドゥン) Mausoleum

Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture

Early 16th century on

Culture of Creation: Second Ryūkyūan Kingdom

Region of Creation: Southern Japanese Archipelago

Description

As sites that both celebrate and mourn the dead, the tombs of the Ryūkyū archipelago are resonant symbols of the glories and traumas of the islands.  The tomb pictured here was built around 1501 and is known as Tamaudun. It represents one of the largest and most prominent mausoleums associated with the Ryūkyūan royal family and illustrates part of the complex history of the islands and its peoples.

Tamaudun is located in Naha City on the island of Okinawa, the site of the former capital of Shuri 首里.  About 200 meters to the west of the Shureimon 守礼門 gate of Shuri Castle, it was built by the third ruler of the second Shō Dynasty (1469-1879), King Shō Shin 尚眞 (1465-1527, r. 1477-1526).  He reigned over the region for 50 years, during a time of relative peace and prosperity that was regarded by later generations as a golden age of the kingdom.

Although the characters currently used to write the name of this tomb—“Tamaudun 玉陵”—mean “jeweled grave,” in the local dialect of Okinawan, it may have originally meant “Hall of Spirits” (霊御殿) and that is precisely the function it served.  Around 1501, Shō Shin constructed the site to reinter the remains of his father Shō En 尚円 (1415-76, r. 1470-76). An inscription on a stone stele (Tamaudun no hinomon 玉陵の碑文) by the outer wall lists the names of some of the people initially laid to rest in the tomb. They included Shō En’s consort, Shō Shin’s mother, younger and older sister, and third through seventh sons. However, his first and second sons are excluded, suggesting some sort of succession dispute. Nevertheless, Tamaudun became the family mausoleum for the royal line. Today, all but two of the kings of the Second Shō Dynasty are entombed there. 

Tamaudun is on a plot of about 1 hectare (10,000 square meters, 2.5 acres) that faces north with a hill behind it to the south. The site is divided by two encircling stone walls that are punctuated by rectangular doorways. The distinctive pattern of tightly-fitting pentagonal and hexagonal pieces (aikatazumi 相方積み) of Ryūkyū limestone (Ryūkyū sekkaigan 琉球石灰岩) that make up the walls form barriers that seem simultaneously natural and highly-engineered.  The inner courtyard (~2442 m²) is covered in white coral gravel, another example of using local materials and techniques to mark this site dedicated to the islands’ sovereigns.

Inside the inner wall, the main structure is raised on a plinth and divided into three rooms. The central chamber was used for the practice of “washing bones” (senkotsu 洗骨), common from Amami to Yonagunijima islands.   In it, the remains of the deceased were laid out for several years, the bones were next cleaned and placed in an urn (zushigame 厨子甕), and then finally they were interred in a grave as an object of veneration.  At Tamaudun, the east room was reserved for the interment of the ritually washed bones of kings and queens while the west was afforded to those who did not belong to the main royal lineage.  This structure differs from extant Chinese tombs and the burial practice recalls Southeast Asian double burial rites.

The stone structures themselves evince a lively interplay between local and outside elements.  The stone buildings likely imitated local palace architecture, including a roof of flat tiles resembling wood shingles. Chinese styles are evident in the carved stone panels and lions (Okinawan: shīsā シーサー, J. shishi 獅子).  At Tamaudun, natural landforms—the cave-like chambers built into the earth—and the East Asian practice of adorning tombs with architecture (J. hafubaka 破風墓) coexist and augment each other.

During the Battle of Okinawa, many residents of the islands took refuge in the tombs scattered around the island. While it is unclear whether Tamaudun served this purpose, the structure was severely damaged in the battles. Yet after three years of extensive repairs, the national government designated it as a National Historical Site and Important Cultural Property in 1972. In the year 2000, UNESCO recognized the site as a part of the Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu World Heritage designation. In 2018, it became the first architecture in Okinawa Prefecture to be designated a National Treasure by the Tokyo government. Thus on one hand, Tamaudun continues to represent both a center of royal power and rich cultural exchange in the archipelago. Yet it also is marked by loss, foreign intervention, and ongoing struggles for autonomy and identity.

Course Integration

Suggested Learning Objectives

1. Gain insight into beliefs and practices surrounding the afterlife
2. Understand how political authority and power is established through mortuary architecture
3. Engage with Ryukyuan ecologies through architecture and materials

Suggested Course Assignments

1. Across the world, tombs are a common way that cultures express their values and beliefs. They can also indicate common traits across cultures and geographic areas. Compare Tamaudun with tombs in Korea and China. How are they similar and different in form? Also, compare Tamaudun and these mainland tombs with other mausolea from the 16th and 17th century on the island of Honshū. What does that suggest about the connections and differences across Northeast Asia?
2. In the past or even today, how have people in your country enshrined their dead leaders? What does that say about the country’s political and religious culture? How would you compare it to what Tamaudun reveals about the authority of the Shō rulers?

Annotated Bibliography and Reference Materials

2. Kobayashi Junko 小林純子, and Miyagi Tokumasa 宮城篤正. Sugu wakaru Okinawa no bijutsu すぐわかる沖縄の美術. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Bijutsu 東京美術, 2007. [Japanese] 

Though the images are rather small, this book is meant for a general audience, giving a breezy overview of a wide range of Okinawan artistic practices.  The section on tombs and burial practices (pp. 132-33) is particularly useful for understanding Tamaudun.

3. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of Ryukyu

Multi-lingual site including maps, conservation reports, and other documents related to a set of sites (including Tamaudun) that were designated World Heritage sites in 2000.

4. Smits, Gregory. Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2019. [English]

This broad survey offers many useful insights into the larger context of Tamaudun and the Ryūkyū Kingdom.  The inscription on the stele by the tomb (listed as “Tamaodon”) is discussed briefly on p. 139.

Comparison Objects

• Royal tombs from other parts of Japan and the rest of East Asia.
• Double burial goods from Southeast Asia.

Primary Source

This early 20^th century poet expressed the complex history of Okinawa’s tombs, a face of the islands that he left behind to go to the metropole of Tokyo.