Shuri Castle is a reconstruction of the original castle of the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom – an independent country (that paid tribute to both China and Japan) until 1879.

This image was made on our trip to Japan in 2005. Although I had lived in Japan for almost two years in the early 90’s, this was my first trip to Okinawa – homeland of karate.

This image is part of my Photos of the Day album, which can be viewed in high resolution at http://photos.desparoz.com.