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Iriomote Ishigaki NP, Okinawa
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After 18 years of trials, Kabira’s Susumu Tokashiki found that reducing black-lip oysters’ body fluids improved pearl-nucleus surgery. In 1970, the harvest jumped from 200–600 to 1,600 pearls, many round and over 10 mm.
The islets called 婿離 (“groom islet”) and 嫁離 (“bride islet”) have a tragic local legend: a young couple from villages on opposite shores, unable to be together, became the rocks.
The bay’s northwest shore was once a bleaching yard: women rinsed and sun-bleached Yaeyama jōfu there, a textile sent as tribute to the Ryukyu court. Its name, 布晒浜, means “cloth-bleaching beach.”
A Kabira storyteller recalled that the bay was once called Kiha and suggested writing it 奇波, linking the name to water that changes through seven colors from sunrise to sunset—a local interpretation, not a proven etymology.
Maran boats carrying tribute from Ishigaki to the Ryukyu court sheltered in this calm bay while waiting for favorable winds. Kabira’s beautiful waters once served as a practical stop on a demanding sea journey.
Local tradition dates Kabira’s lion-dance heads back roughly 500 years. When the village unveiled replacements in 2013, reports called them only the second generation; legend says the originals arrived in a box washed ashore.
Some islet names preserve little stories: the cultural-heritage record links サイ離 to white eagles that rested there, クバ離 to screw palms, and キダ離 to ebony trees.
The calm-looking bay is an important wetland: Japan’s Environment Ministry notes diverse reef corals, crabs and mud shrimps on its tidal flats, plus a population of the sea star Kasuri-momijigai.
Black-lip oysters favor open water, yet Kabira became a pearl nursery: tidal exchange brings in seawater, Mt. Omoto shelters the bay from typhoons, and streams from forested slopes carry nutrients the oysters need.
