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Sanriku Fukkō NP, Miyagi
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Oshima’s Jūhachinari-hama squeaks when dry quartz grains rub underfoot. Its name, read Kugunari (“9 + 9 = 18”), is thought to echo the sound; the beach was reported in a scientific journal in 1894 and became a national natural monument in 2011.
Oshima yuzu was once grown at Japan’s northern limit; that distinction has since moved north into Iwate. One island grower tends about 300 trees, and the fruit is donated each year for Kesennuma school lunches.
The bridge’s nickname, Tsurukame (“crane-turtle”), joins mainland Tsurugaura with Oshima’s Kameyama. Islanders’ half-century wish became a 297-meter arch in 2019, after the 2011 disaster exposed how vulnerable ferry access could be.
When Sebastián Vizcaíno’s Spanish expedition surveyed Kesennuma Bay in 1611, its account listed 5 ports and named the passage between Oshima and the mainland San Ildefonso.
Oshima Shrine on Kameyama is listed as a Myōjin Taisha in the 10th-century Engishiki register. The Miyagi Shrine Association also cites an 859 imperial chronicle recording the deity’s promotion to a higher court rank.
After the 2011 tsunami, camellia enthusiasts around Japan sent about 600 cultivars to Oshima’s restoration project. Volunteers still return to help care for the grove and gather seeds for the island’s camellia-oil craft.
Odanohama received the Environment Ministry’s “Special Selection” honor in 2006. After the 2011 tsunami swept away much of its sand, residents and volunteers cleared debris, reopening it in 2012 as Miyagi’s only beach open that season.
In 2011, tsunami-borne burning oil and debris from Kesennuma crossed the channel and ignited Oshima’s woodland. The island fire burned about 117 hectares before it was extinguished on March 17.
Oshima Shrine’s sacred object is a huge rock, and local legend gives it a curious glow: in rice-planting season, a tanishi snail climbed onto the stone and shone blue each night. People honored it as the rice-field deity.
At Tatsumaizaki, Oshima’s southern cape, local lore says the sea princess Otohime washed ashore in a cave now called Otohime-iwaya—“Princess Oto’s cave.” It’s a Dragon Palace tale tied to a real coastal landmark.
