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Sanriku Fukkō NP, Aomori
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Most Japanese gull colonies are on remote cliffs or islands; Hachinohe identifies Kabushima as the country’s only place where visitors can watch nesting up close. The colony is a National Natural Monument.
On an island of about 1.8 hectares, roughly 30,000 gulls gather to breed. Each pair defends a territory of only about 1 square metre—a very crowded neighborhood!
Their cat-like cry gave them the Japanese name umi-neko, meaning “sea cat.” Look for the black band across the tail—that’s the field mark that distinguishes them from other gulls.
One local explanation links Kabushima’s name to wild rapeseed once called “kabu flowers.” In May, yellow rapeseed blooms across the island beneath the swirling gulls.
Kabushima became land-linked through wartime reclamation works, completed in 1943. The island also has a sobering history: U.S. air raids struck it on July 15, 1945.
Local fishermen regarded gulls as helpful signs of where fish could be found. The birds also came to be cherished as messengers of Benzaiten, the deity worshipped at the shrine on the island.
Local good-luck lore turns an accidental splat into “kaiun”—good fortune. If a gull’s dropping lands on you on the shrine grounds, the shrine has issued visitors a commemorative good-luck certificate.
A 2015 fire destroyed the shrine, whose old ceiling held 56 gull paintings. Its rebuilding took 5 years, with construction timed for when the birds had left the island.
At April’s Kabushima Festival, held during nesting season, a gull-decorated mikoshi is carried down the shrine steps. In July, another festival’s procession takes its mikoshi to the nearby beach and dips it in the water.
Yes. The Natural Monument boundary covers the whole island and the sea out to about 109 metres from the high-water line—protection extends beyond the shoreline.
Not necessarily: a Hachinohe study found that denser rapeseed late in chick-rearing correlated with more fledglings and higher fledging rates. The plants’ effects can differ by breeding stage.
