A path in red tile patterns in the center of the Una in the Shurijo Seiden is called “Ukimichi （floating road）.” This name came from the fact that during the Ryukyu Kingdom era, this path was raised about 15 cm from the ground and looked like it was floating. Today, it has been recreated so that it is raised about 5 cm.

The Ukimichi was a special path that only select people such as the king and the investiture envoys sent by the Chinese emperor could walk on.

Strangely, the Ukimichi is diagonal, slanting slightly to the right toward the Seiden. There are various theories regarding the reason for that, and it appears that the direction that this path extends may be the key to solving that mystery.

The Ukimichi extends to the doorway in the center of Hoshinmon Gate, and beyond that is Suimui-utaki. There is a legend that long ago, gods descended here, and this is the place where people first started to live … the origin of the Ryukyu Kingdom. As the Ukimichi extends toward Suimui-utaki, which is a sacred place in Shurijo Castle, it may have been created as a path connecting this utaki to the Seiden, regarding the utaki as a hinpun. There is nothing written about the Ukimichi in records left over from the Ryukyu Kingdom era, and consequently, it still remains a mystery.（Atsushi Koki）

※1 A hinpun is a wall resembling a folding screen placed between the entrance of an Okinawan home and the main residential building. （Okinawa Daihyakka Jiten （Okinawa Encyclopedia）, published by The Okinawa Times）