Ancient Castle of Na-Ga-Gus-Ko,
Lew Chew (Type IIa) [2nd litho]

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of complete lithograph

A party from the expedition is seen climbing up the hill to the castle ruins while in the foreground an armed member of the expedition is talking with Okinawans.

On the visit to the ruins, the Narrative contains very interesting commentary. It notes that the exploring party encountered "curious stones" planted in the ground which were called "ishee" [ishee is Japanese for rock]. The party thought these were alien to the Ryukyuan culture it had encountered and speculated that they might be a "...lingam, or emblem of Phallic worship". The Narrative also recorded that the hill of the castle ruins was almost entirely covered with excavated tombs resembling the rock tombs of Egypt and Syria and these were called "the houses of the devil's men" by the Okinawans accompanying them. The American's found this attitude toward the tombs curious in a land where ancestral tombs are considered sacred. The Narrative concluded this "...seems to point to the existence of another race on the island, in ancient times -- a race who may have received the worship of Lingam from Java, or other islands where memorials of it exits." In the picture you see an opening on the rock in the left foreground. Perhaps this is one of the "rock tombs / houses of the devil's men".

There are two basic types of this lithograph. I call this Type II. Type I has a slightly different picture. In type IIa and IIb you seemore figures going up the hill to the ruins and there are small rocks in the right foreground. For more information on the types, click here.

The lettering reads:

• From nature by Heine, Figures by Brown


• T. Sinclair's litho, Phia


• ANCIENT CASTLE OF NA-GA-GUS-KO, LEW CHEW

Clean lithograph. Bottom edge trimmed.

Paper thickness is 8mm.

Landscape Format

Page Size (cm): 28.5 x 20.5

Image Size (cm): Width-23.4, Height-15.7, Diagonal-28.3