Another nice path of Yanbaru. I think this will conclude this collaborative thread #FootpathFriday / #EADays #JEArchéo #JEA2025. I have more photographs of Yanbaru paths of course, but I fear I am becoming a little bit redundant… There are some parts of Yanbaru easily accessible to the public (even children) for instance in the park around Nangusuku (Nago Gusuku). They even have charcoal kilns ! I’d recommend to wait for november though, when the habu season is over.

Ah, bamboo! Another plant you’ll learn to hate really quickly when surveying Yanbaru… They invade the ridge paths like the ferns. Of course they don’t look terrible in this picture. When they are terrible, I’m too busy cutting my way through to take any pictur And they cut holes in your waterproof boots! All things considered, ridge paths are quite a bit of hell, better stick in the valley and walk the streams.If your boots are still all right.
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In fact when the horse paths became too deep, they made another one 1 metre on the right or the left. Generally there is a human footpath just next to the horse paths (on top of it you would say) because that’s not easy to pass a horse going the opposite way on such narrow paths, so humans would better walk elsewhere. So you can find two horse paths (different depth) + one human path going the same way. Yanbaru’s highways.
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Another horse path, please appreciate the height of the walls. Or maybe their depth, since they were dug...A lot of the paths were cut after the Japanese annexation, at the end of the 19th century : the Ryūkyū Kingdom was really strict about access to Yanbaru. But even limited, there was access and so, necessarily, paths. I mean we found paths with the kingdom’s landsurvey markers along them, so obviously, some date back to the kingdom.
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This is another ridge path, same area, no horse, for comparison. Very well conserved, probably used until more recently. Most of Yanbaru’s paths have been used till WWII. Then the US put their jungle warfare training thing there and access was denied. Also, Okinawa’s population drastically decreased with the war so people just concentrated on the good valley fields on the coast and even the parts that were outside the fences were abandoned.
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Another survey, even older, february 2018, where we had horse paths ! Lots of them. Please appreciate this first one, that is not very deep indeed, but whose symmetry is vaguely satisfying. As you can see this is a ridge path, but instead of being flat, the repeated passage of horses (to carry bamboo and firewood) has dug it, giving it a nice U shape (it’s currently being filled a bit by almost 80 years of forest deposits…)
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OK, that’s not a path, that’s a stream. But you can’t make a thread about a Yanbaru survey without putting one or two photographs of gorgeous streams, whether it is Footpath Friday or not. Moreover, it answers the question “why the hell would you walk in a stream ?” : as you can see, absolutely no vegetation to clear to be able to progress ! You can just walk and look for historical remains while appreciating the landscape.
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Another slope path, after clearing, quite weathered. As you can see the hills in Yanbaru might not be very high, but they are very steep, we’re always very happy to find an old path. Not only because archaeological remains concentrate along old paths, but also just because it eases the progression so much. There is much difference between cutting your way in the vegetation in the wild and cutting your way in the vegetation on an ancient path…
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We also walk a lot in the stream beds. In fact, we generally start by walking in the stream beds and look for paths that go up from the stream bed. The easiest way to find a path in Yanbaru. Moreover, ancient people used to do the same (use the stream beds as path) so that you can find quite a lot of archaeological vestiges along the streams before you even find a path. Charcoal kilns. Lots of charcoal kilns.
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We also have horse paths, recognisable because the hooves of the horses gradually dug the path, so that now, they look like ditches, sometimes with walls more than 1.5 m high.
The one in this photograph is just another slope path. Before clearing, but it is not too much invaded by vegetation, a lucky path ♡ You can see a second cut slope below the path on the left : that’s the start of terraced fields that go down the valley.
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This one is more recognizable as a path I’d say, it’s practically a highway. There are many types of paths in Yanbaru, mainly slope paths with the hill-side of the path cut to create a vertical wall, as in the two photos I just posted, and ridge paths. Ridge paths are more difficult to identify since there is no cut slope and some are very invaded by vegetation. You feel it in your feet, the ground is different where there used to be a path.
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#EADays #JEArcheo more kaizuka period wonders

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2nd floor, old building, my favourite part of the museum, with the crowded showcases full of gorgeous kaizuka period artefacts.

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a good indicator of the beginning of the gusuku period is the association imported chinese porcelain ＋imported kamuiyaki ＋ imported talc pots. kamuiyaki is a type of ceramic imported from tokunoshima in the amami islands. talc pots were imported from nagasaki in kyushu (japan).
the exhibition insist on the fact the gusukus along the hija-gawa river functioned as a network, communicating with fire signals, showing there was a sort of large community / central power …

the first floor has a sort of quick summary of Yuntanza history, with a heavy bias toward the gusuku and early kingdom period (because they're Team Gosamaru too).
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Yomitan village museum reopened a few years ago under the name Yuntanza Museum. Yuntanza is the historical name of Yomitan. it used to be written 読谷山 instead of 読谷. they added a new building but also kept the old one, that had a really good atmosphere. they have a raised-floor granary and a sugar cane press outside, as well as a few zushis (funerary urns) by the entrance.
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