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Iriomote Ishigaki NP, Okinawa
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The low hill east of the lighthouse car park is 17th-century Hirakubo Tomidai, a lookout in the Ryukyu Kingdom’s smoke-signal network. It is one of 18 beacon sites across 13 islands designated a National Historic Site in 2007.
The shore between Cape Hirakubo and Urazaki is a sea-turtle nesting ground. Researchers found nests concentrated around Hirakubo and Osaki, where pasture-backed beaches had few streetlights or paved roads.
A chronicle records that around 1500, Hirakubo Kanaaji, a local chief on the peninsula, kept 400–500 cattle and horses—a reminder that the cape’s grazing country has a remarkably long history.
Hirakubo’s pasture celebration, Makiyoi, is held in lunar February and September: herders drive the cattle together, visitors are served gyūjiru beef soup, and newborn calves once had their ears marked to show ownership.
The lighthouse is only 13m tall, but its lamp stands 74m above sea level and shines about 23km offshore. Its lofty position on the cape gives the modest white tower an impressive reach.
About 400m north of the cape is Daichipanari, a whale-shaped islet in a strictly protected national-park zone. Roseate and black-naped terns use it as a breeding ground.
The waters around Daichipanari are known habitat for the Erabu sea krait. Though it lives in the sea, this sea snake can come ashore and lay eggs in rocky crevices.
South of the cape, 4 conical hills line up from north to south, each rising about 40m. They stand on green schist, a metamorphic rock about 200 million years old.
In the 2007 film Koishikute, based on BEGIN’s story, a band rehearses beneath a banner at Hirakubo Lighthouse. This real cape landmark became part of a movie filmed on the band’s home island.
