Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya

What Is Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya?

Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya (北谷町うちなぁ家) is a town-run recreation of a traditional Okinawan homestead in Kamiseido, Chatan Town, Okinawa Prefecture, and two of its structures, a main house built in 1890 and a stone pigsty toilet, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on February 23, 2012.

The name is read Chatan-chō Uchinā-ya. Uchinaa is the Okinawan word for Okinawa itself, so the name amounts to "the Okinawan house"; the local tourism association sometimes writes it as Uchina-ya. Chatan Town owns the site, and its Board of Education cultural affairs section looks after it.

The homestead occupies a 608-square-meter plot inside Ashibinaa Park, a municipal sports park. Rather than one family's house preserved where it stood, Uchinaa-ya is an assembly: buildings and fixtures gathered from several places and set out again as a single walled compound.

How Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya Came Together

The project began in fiscal 1993, when the Medoruma family of Yoshihara (also called Jagaru) in Chatan decided to rebuild their home. They offered the town the red-tiled timber house their family had lived in since 1890, a building that had come through the Battle of Okinawa. The Board of Education accepted it, stored the dismantled timbers, and in 2005 re-erected the house on its present site.

The date matters. According to the town's leaflet, a 1737 decree of the Ryukyu Kingdom fixed the size of a homestead and even the number of tatami mats per room according to rank, and commoners outside Naha were not allowed tile roofs. The rule was lifted in 1889. The Medoruma house went up the following year, just as ordinary Okinawan families began to roof their homes in the red tile now so closely tied to the islands.

Other pieces came from elsewhere. The fūru, a stone pigsty that doubled as the household toilet, was moved from the former Sakihara family property in Tamagami, Chatan; the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates its relocation to 2006. The thatched takakura, a granary raised on posts, was brought from Kasari-cho Manya in Amami City, Kagoshima Prefecture.

The Two Registered Structures at Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya

• Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya Main House (Former Medoruma Family Residence Main House): built 1890, relocated 2005. Single-story timber house with a tiled roof, building area 104 square meters. Registered as a model of form.
• Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya Furu (Former Sakihara Family Residence Furu): built in the early Meiji period, relocated 2006. Ryukyu limestone masonry, area 17 square meters. Registered as a model of form.

Both were registered on the same day. The Agency's database gives the address of each as 830-2 Kamiseido, Chatan, and the owner as Chatan Town. The granary, the sugarcane press, the well and the Hinpun screen wall on the same plot are not part of the registration.

The Layout of Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya

A stone wall encloses the compound. Walk in through the south gate and a freestanding screen, the hinpun, blocks the view. In Okinawan homes it kept passers-by from looking straight into the house and was believed to turn away evil spirits. Behind it the red-roofed main house faces south.

The site plan in the town's leaflet places the main house slightly north of center, with the kitchen at its west end. Along the west side of the compound, from north to south, come the fūru, the footprint of an animal shed with the sugarcane press, a vegetable patch and the well; the thatched granary stands to the left as you enter. A space for an ashagi, a detached guest building, is marked on the east side. A natural circuit runs from the gate around the hinpun to the front of the house, then past the granary and well and up the west side to the fūru in the far corner.

The placement follows old custom. The leaflet notes that in a south-facing homestead the fūru went in the northwest corner, and the well was dug where it would not face the hearth god in the kitchen. Seeing these pieces together is the point of Uchinaa-ya: the compound shows how an Okinawan household was arranged, not just what one house looked like.

Visiting Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya

Chatan Town Uchinaa-ya stands in Ashibinaa Park in Kamiseido. The town's directions are for drivers: leave National Route 58 for Prefectural Road 23 (the Kokutai Doro) and turn left after the first pedestrian bridge. There is no dedicated car park; use the park's lot, which a 2026 local media report put at 15 spaces. The town gives no public transport directions.

The homestead is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It closes on Mondays, Tuesdays and national holidays, on June 23 (Okinawa Memorial Day) and from December 29 to January 3, so weekend visits are possible. Admission is free. Visitors may take off their shoes and step up into the main house, where old household tools and a sanshin are displayed.

Groups, and anyone wishing to use the site for something other than a visit, must send an application to the Chatan Town Board of Education cultural affairs section one to two weeks ahead, and schools are asked to call in advance. The town publishes no guidance on photography. Inquiries go to the cultural affairs section (tel. 098-936-3159).