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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Tokyo
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A local confectioner created milk crackers for Crown Prince Hirohito’s 1918 visit, using Oshima milk, eggs and butter—and baking them with camellia oil and charcoal. Their unusual square shape stood out.
Kusaya makers cherish a brine used for generations: its living microbes give the fish its distinctive fermentation. During the 1986 evacuation, 5 makers were allowed back to barrel and seal the shops’ brine.
Ashitaba was everyday food, not a special crop to buy. It grew in the shade of trees on Oshima’s rotating fallow fields; after years of growing, those trees enriched the soil before the land returned to farming.
For Oshima’s bekko, seasonal fish is soaked in soy sauce with fiery green island chili instead of wasabi. The marinade also helped preserve fish, and its glossy tortoiseshell color gave the dish its name.
Oshima’s old tax was salt, not rice: its volcanic ground drained too quickly for paddies. Cattle and horses hauled seawater, firewood and salt; later, cattle-raising shifted toward dairy and local milk.
On an island where fresh water and salt were precious, fish brine was reused rather than thrown away. Over time, the surviving microbes in this repeatedly used liquid became the secret behind kusaya’s unmistakable flavor.
Anko is said to come from words for “older sister,” once a respectful name for senior women. In the traditional work outfit, the front apron served as the sash—so the kimono was worn without an obi.
Habu Port began as a lake inside a crater formed by a 9th-century eruption. A 1703 tsunami broke the crater’s rim; merchant Akihiro Heiroku later had the inlet widened, and the harbor opened in 1800.
Artifacts at Shimotakabora show that people lived on Izu Oshima about 8,000 years ago. Finds include obsidian from nearby Kozushima, boar bones not native to Oshima, and bracelets made from shells found farther south.
About 3 million wild camellias grow on Izu Oshima, and fossil leaf impressions found in Jomon-era layers show the plants were here in prehistoric times. The native wild camellia has a simple, single-layer flower.
Islanders planted camellias as windbreaks to shield homes and fields from fierce seasonal winds. Their branches also became firewood and charcoal, while the seeds were pressed for oil—making the tree part of daily life.
Road construction in 1953 exposed the striped cliff nicknamed the “Baumkuchen.” Its layers record more than 100 eruptions over roughly 18,000 years, alternating volcanic ash and scoria with soil formed in quieter intervals.
Ura-sabaku is the only place labeled “desert” on Geospatial Information Authority of Japan maps—but it is covered in black volcanic ash and scoria, not pale sand. The 1986 eruption added a thick new layer.
In 1931, 2 camels and 11 donkeys arrived for tours on Mihara’s volcanic “desert.” By 1935, visitors could also ride a braked sled down a 900-meter rail on the caldera slope in about 2 minutes.
“Habu no Minato,” a song about the port, became a major hit in 1928, and visitors soon flocked to Izu Oshima. The harbor’s old Minatoya Inn is also linked to Kawabata Yasunari’s The Dancing Girl of Izu.
After the summit eruption seemed to be easing, a fissure opened in 1986; about 90 minutes later, another broke beyond the caldera rim. Lava then flowed toward Motomachi, the island’s main settlement.
In 1986, 10,476 people left Izu Oshima in about 11 hours, carried by 51 vessels and helicopters. The fleet included 31 fishing boats, and the evacuation ended without loss of life.
Lava buried Mihara Shrine in 1951, so it was rebuilt higher on the mountain. In 1986, a ridge left by that earlier flow split new lava around the shrine, sparing it from being buried again.
Izu Oshima’s highest point is Miharashinzan, at 758 meters—not the familiar central cone of Mihara. This relatively young summit was formed by the 1950–51 eruption.
The brush-tip-shaped rock Fudeshima is a remnant of an older volcano, active hundreds of thousands of years ago, that was later covered by Izu Oshima’s growth. Nearby cliffs expose more than 50 solidified magma dikes.
