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Keramashoto NP, Okinawa
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Maejima’s walls are made of coral, not the island’s own sandstone and phyllite. In the early 20th century, residents blasted coral from the seabed to make a boat harbor, then reused it to build the village walls.
A 1734 record names a sailor from Maejima among the crew sent to return Korean castaways to their homeland via China. The castaways had drifted to Kerama the previous year—a striking reminder of the islanders’ long-distance seafaring skills.
Before World War II, Maejima residents made “Kerama firewood” and fished for bonito. Across Kerama, this branded wood fueled Naha kitchens and Tsuboya pottery kilns; later, it also helped smoke the islands’ well-regarded bonito flakes.
A Ryukyu chronicle says a beacon was set up on Maejima in 1644 to help welcome tribute ships and warn the capital of suspicious vessels. A 1651 map also labels the island “前けらま嶋 人居有”—“Mae Kerama Island, inhabited.”
At Maejima’s southern sacred site, local tradition remembers Meemosee, a priestess who performed a ceremony at Shuri Castle. The story says she returned home and died by drowning; the shore where her body came to rest became a place of worship.
Maejima escaped a 1945 ground battle after its school-branch teacher reportedly persuaded a Japanese commander not to station troops there. But the island was not untouched: a 1944 air raid killed 2 women.
In 1940, Maejima had 274 residents in 52 households. After the bonito fishery declined and a 1962 typhoon struck, the remaining 36 residents left together for Okinawa’s main island, ending the village’s continuous settlement.
Maejima’s 133-meter central ridge helped supply the village with water. Rain sank into the hillside and seeped out at Nishinu-kaa spring; the flow was once strong enough to water a small rice paddy beside the settlement.
Even with only a narrow strip of flat land, Maejima’s old village had 4 lanes running north–south and 4 crossing east–west, forming house blocks. The settlement occupied a roughly 250-meter stretch between the hillside and the sea.
Maejima’s oldest communal cemetery, called Muranju, was eventually joined by household graves. A museum curator explains that families began making separate burial places when the shared cemetery’s space for storing bones was running out.
Some Maejima walls use flat, table-shaped coral pieces set diagonally, so the seams run at an angle rather than in the usual horizontal lines. The island museum curator suggests that this unusual style may have favored appearance over height or strength.
At the forest shrine called Tonochi, priestesses once led seed-selection ceremonies and Umachii prayers for the harvest. The sacred site stood beside the former priestess’s residence, showing how ritual life was woven into the village’s layout.
