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Saikai NPKujukushima, Nagasaki
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The island’s martyr story unfolded in 2 waves: 3 Christians who helped missionary Camilo Constanzo were executed here in 1622; in 1624, 11 members of the Sakamoto and Deguchi families followed—14 people in all.
At a crack in Nakaenoshima’s cliff, believers chant orasho prayers while collecting water seeping from the rock. One reported visit took about an hour to gather just a teacup’s worth—a careful ritual, not a quick dip in a spring.
Three of the 14 Christians executed here bore the baptismal name Yohane (John). The island’s local name, “San (three) Juwan-sama,” and its 3 sacred figures preserve that connection.
The sacred water accompanied everyday hopes: Ikitsuki fishers visited when celebrating new boats, while believers in Yamada prayed here against winds that could damage rice after planting and gave thanks after harvest.
The island’s seepage was treasured as holy water for baptisms and household purification; believers also prayed here for healing. A little water gathered from the rocks served purposes far beyond the shoreline ritual.
Nakaenoshima’s small shrine is younger than its martyr stories: Kakure Kirishitan built the hall in the late 1950s to remember ancestors executed on the island. It holds 3 sacred figures.
Nakaenoshima was sacred to more than Ikitsuki believers: accounts also record Christians from Hirado’s western coast coming to perform the water-drawing rite, linking communities across the sea.
For Kasuga’s Hidden Christians, Nakaenoshima was one landscape-based focus of faith: they revered it as a martyr site and also prayed to Mt. Yasumandake, a mountain sacred before Christianity arrived.
In one Hirado family’s account, New Year includes climbing a hill on January 2 to pray toward Nakaenoshima and give thanks for the year just passed—a way to honor the sacred island without landing.
UNESCO maps Nakaenoshima separately as a 2.96-hectare component of the 2018 Hidden Christian Sites property. Here, the heritage is a sacred island and its living traditions, rather than a church building.
