Urasoe Gusuku and Urasoe Yodore

From the 12th to the 14th century Urasoe was the seat of Okinawa's kings, and the city still calls itself Tedako, the child of the sun, after the legend that King Eiso's father was the sun. Urasoe Yodore holds the Chuzan royal tombs, and the museum below explains the old capital with finds and video. In 2022 the city added a VR reconstruction of the castle, viewed at the south entrance.

In 1945 Japanese forces held this ridge to protect their headquarters at Shuri, and the US Army called the cliff Hacksaw Ridge. The fighting on the escarpment was among the fiercest of the Battle of Okinawa, and Urasoe lost 4,112 of its 9,217 residents in the war, 44.6 percent of the town. Trench sites and the Kuchigwaa-gama shelter where villagers hid lie along the ridge near a memorial, and volunteer guides from the Urasoe history group walk visitors through them.