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Yoshino Kumano NP, Wakayama
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On 16 September 1890, the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul struck reefs off Kii Oshima in a typhoon. 587 crew members died; islanders searched through the storm and rescued and cared for 69 survivors.
In 1985, 2 Turkish planes evacuated 215 Japanese people from Tehran, 1 hour before a deadline to leave. Kushimoto remembers the rescue as a return of the kindness shown after the Ertuğrul disaster.
In the 1950s, curry on Kii Oshima could be made with mackerel, potato, and onion. Meat was scarce, while local waters supplied plenty of fish; fish, shellfish, and vegetable curries were common.
In 1791, 2 American merchant ships stopped at Kii Oshima—62 years before Perry’s arrival. Their sea-otter pelts found no local market, and a crewman’s diary documenting the encounter surfaced only in 2016.
Oshima’s Minato Festival reenacts a legendary welcome by islanders arriving by boat. Its dramatic race pits 2 boats, Ōtori (“Phoenix”) and Hayabusa (“Falcon”), against each other between the island and Kushimoto.
Local people built a memorial at Kashino the February after the 1890 wreck. Today, Kushimoto and Turkey hold a major joint remembrance ceremony every 5 years, continuing a tradition interrupted only during World War II.
Kashinozaki Lighthouse began shining in 1870 and was Japan’s first stone-built lighthouse and first rotating-flash lighthouse. Designed by British engineer Richard Henry Brunton, it still serves as a working navigation beacon.
The lighthouse’s original rotating mechanism ran on a falling weight that keepers wound every 4 days. A mercury-float system installed in 1933 still helps turn the light; the old drive is preserved at the site.
Brunton is said to have brought daffodil bulbs from Britain and planted them near the lighthouse. Island residents carried on the tradition, planting more than 100,000; the flowers now brighten the point in winter.
Near Kashino, a 2-storey fish-viewing tower once served as a command post for local net fishing. Lookouts watched fish in the clear water and directed boats; the surviving lower structure is now a lookout.
Kii Oshima began forming about 17 million years ago, when underwater eruptions laid down volcanic ash and later magma pushed into those layers. At nearby Umikongo, waves have carved the fractured rock into sharp pinnacles.
