The blaze at the wooden castle overlooking Naha, capital of Japan’s southerly Okinawa island, broke out during the early hours of Thursday morning (31 October).
Ryo Kochi, spokesperson for Okinawa’s prefectural police, said the fire started at Shuri’s main temple before spreading to all its other main structures.
Footage from the scene, broadcast by Japan’s NHK, shows the structure completely burnt out. Firefighters remained were still at the scene at 6pm local time (9am UK time).
The Kyodo news agency reported at least 10 fire crews were dispatched to the scene to battle the blaze.
Shuri was a central pillar of Japan’s ancient Ryukyu kingdom. It was all but razed during the Second World War before being restored and reopened in the 1990s and was denoted a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2000.
