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Shirinka Well
Shirinka Well in the district of Itoman is one of the most famous Nbuga (wells used to draw water for childbirth). It is said that the well was dug by the ancestors of the Shiribara clan, and thus it was named Shirinka Well.
It was tradition to draw the first water of the year in the morning of the New Year’s Day at the Nbuga, and so on the first day of the New Year according to the lunar calendar, the well was busy with people collecting water in the early morning. Today, we can still see remnants of this tradition, as many women gather at the well in the morning of the New Year in the lunar calendar, offering prayers.
The water still flows abundantly, and the well is surrounded by a half circle arrangement of Ryukyu limestone. On the surface of the stone at the front are indentations that formed through repeated pulling and lowering of the well bucket.
Long ago, it is said that a crab with thread (Ito in Japanese) and cocoon was found in this well, and that is how this area came to be known as Itoman.
