Chiburijima Island was added to Your Favorites!
Daisen-Oki NP, Shimane
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
A 1-km wall of red, yellow and brown rock rises 50–200 m along Chiburijima’s west coast. The red formed when volcanic fragments oxidized while still hot; at sunset, the cliff can glow even brighter.
Chiburijima’s sazae-grabbing event began in 1987. Participants plunge into the shallows at Kizane Beach to search for the sea snails, then can grill their catch on the spot or take it home.
A local history says Chiburijima’s tanuki began with a pair brought from mainland Japan in 1941 and kept in an enclosure at the village office. They dug their way out; today’s island tanuki are their descendants.
Chiburijima’s black-cattle business is mostly about breeding: calves are sold to fattening farms elsewhere in Japan at 6–10 months old. The island is a nursery for future beef herds, rather than a place where cattle are raised to market weight.
Chibu’s only fishing port is sheltered by surrounding islets, making a natural harbor. Alongside small-boat fishing, local operations raise rock oysters and keep juvenile bluefin tuna in the surrounding waters.
Chibu’s historic seafood trade reached Qing China: dried squid, sea cucumbers and abalone were among the island’s catches exported as Nagasaki Tawaramono, a celebrated category of Japanese marine goods.
Chiburijima is one of 3 islands forming the rim of the Dōzen caldera, not a volcano standing alone. The ancient caldera floor is now underwater, reaching about 55 m below the surrounding sea.
In spring, wild radish flowers spread across the upper slopes of Akahage Mountain like a pink carpet. Cattle graze nearby, while the summit’s broad views stretch across the Oki Islands to the Shimane Peninsula and Mt. Daisen.
Akahage’s old stone walls mark makihata, a communal system that rotated land among grazing and crop-growing in a four-year cycle. Some walls still divide pasture today—a working landscape shaped by shared farming rules.
Every November 28, volunteers in 7 Chiburijima settlements weave a roughly 12-m straw serpent or dragon and wrap it around a sacred tree or stand. The ritual seeks protection from misfortune and a good harvest, and each settlement has its own variation.
Local tradition traces the Ikkū Shrine festival to a whale that stranded in Chibu Bay in 1764. After fires and illness followed, people are said to have begun performances to console the shrine’s deity, blamed for the whale’s curse.
At Ikkū Shrine, Shimamae kagura is performed on a stage just 2 tatami mats wide, and local middle-schoolers take on kabuki such as Shiranami Gonin Otoko. The shrine’s theater has 5 tiers of stone-like outdoor seating.
The deity of Chiburijima’s Ikkū Shrine appears in the Engishiki, a 10th-century court register of shrines. The shrine was moved to its present site in 1659, according to its surviving historical record.
Some of Chiburijima’s cultural relics are literally holes in the ground: 11 old food-storage pits, called imogura, were dug into weathered rhyolite. One documented pit extends about 3 m inward.
Each January 12, residents of Furumi pray for the community’s health, then place inscribed willow branches along 7 roads into the settlement. The charms are meant to keep contagious disease from entering the village.
In Chibu, a complete 600-volume set of the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra survives, and local residents still perform a ritual reading. Shimane Prefecture notes that keeping the entire set intact is especially valuable in the Dōzen area.
One proposed origin of “Chibu” links the name to Chifuri-no-kami, a route guardian whom ancient sailors worshipped for safe travel. Chiburijima’s position made it an important refuge and wind-waiting port for ships.
Chibu’s designated folk dance, Minaichi Odori, keeps its staging simple: dancers form a ring around a drummer, sing, and dance with a single fan. The local performance is recognized as an intangible folk cultural property.
Island tradition says the exiled monk Mongaku practiced in a cave on neighboring Nishinoshima. After his death, a samurai friend living on Chiburijima reportedly carried his body back across the water and built his grave there.
Chiburijima has remained the center of a one-island, one-village community since ancient times. Chibu Village still includes the island and nearby islets—and is Shimane Prefecture’s only village.
