Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum

OkiMu in the Omoromachi district opened in 2007 in a building designed to echo the form of traditional gusuku castles, constructed largely from local Okinawan limestone. You enter the museum section via a glass-floored walkway meant to evoke walking over coral, then move through five rooms covering Okinawa's archaeology, natural history, folklore, and crafts, framed around the concepts of ocean and archipelago. The art museum occupies a separate wing with modern and contemporary works by Okinawan artists, including paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, and installation work. Traditional buildings in the courtyard, a sculpture garden, and a hands-on activity room round out the facility. It gives more context for Okinawa's distinct history and identity than any single other site in Naha.