The , also known as the Royal Hotel or , is an abandoned, unfinished hotel in

Kitanakagusuku, Okinawa is a village located in Nakagami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. , the village has an estimated population of 16,040 and the density of 1,400 persons per km². The total area is 11.53 km². It is home to Nakagusuku Castle and the ...

. It sits no more than 50 meters from the walls of

Nakagusuku Castle is a ''gusuku'' in the village of Kitanakagusuku, Okinawa, Japan. It is one of a number of castles built on the island of Okinawa by the Ryukyu Kingdom now in ruins. The legendary Ryukyuan commander, Gosamaru, built the fortress in the early 1 ...

. As of May 2020, the hotel has been fully demolished.

Background

It is believed to have been built by a wealthy businessman from

Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area ...

in order to take advantage of the 1975 Okinawa Ocean Exposition. The hill directly South of Nakagusuku Castle was chosen as the construction site because of the view of both the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

and the East China Sea. There were warnings given by monks from a nearby

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temple that the site was home to numerous graves and

sacred sites Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...

, but they were initially ignored. After many construction accidents, the workers refused to finish the complex as they felt that the place was cursed. The businessman tried to prove the place was not cursed by spending a night at the unfinished hotel only to go completely mad the next day and disappeared soon after. It now sits empty and overgrown by vegetation.Allen, David. "Marine Corps dubs Okinawa's Royal Hotel ruins off-limits." Stars and Stripes kinawa01 Jul 2009, n. pag. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .

Name

The hotel's most common name in Japanese is written as 中城高原ホテル跡 (Nakagusuku Takahara/Kogen Hotel site). The name is less of a name and more of a description. 高原 can be pronounced as either ''Takahara'' or ''Kōgen'', the latter meaning ''plateau''. An alternative name, ''Royal Hotel'', is the supposed name that the builder intended for it, and is evidenced by the faded word "Royal" painted above the entrance.

References

External links

*http://gpzagogo.s8.xrea.com/nakagusukuhotel.html Buildings and structures completed in 1975 Buildings and structures in Okinawa Prefecture Unfinished buildings and structures {{Japan-struct-stub