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Daisen-Oki NP, Shimane
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In 1992, Nishinoshima farmer Hikari Nakagami achieved Japan’s first successful rock-oyster cultivation. These “summer oysters” take 3–4 years to grow to market size—and the innovation began right here on the island.
Winter squid runs once drew around 30 boats and 30 small huts to Ikayose Beach. In a rare 2006 return, squid came so far into the shallow inlet that people could scoop them up without getting their shoes wet.
In 1885, Takuhi Shrine priest Matsuura Sakaru paid half the cost of the first Oki steamship, Oki-maru. Shimane records say he sold much of his woodland on Mt. Takuhi to raise the money, helping open a regular route between the islands and the mainland.
Takuhi Shrine’s 1732 main hall was prepared in Osaka, shipped to Nishinoshima, then assembled by carpenters from Yonago against the mountain’s rock face. The striking shrine complex is now a National Important Cultural Property.
For more than 100 years, Nishinoshima communities have marked August 16 by sending ancestral spirits off in “shaarabune.” Each district makes its own boat from a bamboo-and-wood frame, barley-straw hull and sail decorated with Bon festival flags.
At Yurahime Shrine’s festival in odd-numbered years, sumo is offered first; then the shrine’s portable sanctuary boards a sacred boat and circles Uragō Bay for about an hour, with fireworks over the water.
Local legend says a squid tugged—or bit—Yurahime-no-Mikoto’s hand as she crossed the sea in a tub. The squid’s descendants supposedly return each winter to apologize by washing ashore at the beach beside her shrine.
Takuhi Shrine’s origin story tells of 3 sacred fires rising from the bay on New Year’s Eve and entering the mountain cave. A light was later kept burning there as a beacon for ships, and villages still make group visits during the lunar New Year period.
Takuhi Shrine was famous well beyond Oki: Utagawa Hiroshige featured it as a celebrated view of Oki Province in his “Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces” print series.
Yurahime Shrine appears in a written record from 842. The 927 Engishiki, an early register of shrines, also gives an older name for it: Watasu-gami.
Nishinoshima tradition places Emperor Go-Daigo’s exile residence at Kuroki Palace, where he is said to have stayed for over a year. Shimane’s official history notes that some scholars instead identify Oki Kokubunji, on neighboring Dōgo, as his residence.
Nishinoshima is one of 3 islands that frame Dōzen Caldera. After a huge eruption, the land in the caldera’s center collapsed; seawater later flooded the depression to form the sheltered inner sea.
Kuniga Coast’s Tsūtenkyō Arch began as a sea cave. A landslide collapsed the cave’s inner section, leaving its entrance standing alone as the dramatic natural arch visitors see today.
Matengai Cliff rises 257 m above the sea, and its striped basalt layers are more than decoration: they record successive volcanic eruptions. The steep face ends at a surprisingly gentle, grassy plateau.
Nishinoshima’s makihata system rotated pasture and crops across plots in a four-year cycle, growing crops such as millet, soybeans and wheat. The method made the most of the island’s scarce flat land and poor soil.
The grazing landscape at Nishinoshima is more than a pretty backdrop: the Environment Ministry says the long makihata tradition helped create habitat for grassland and coastal plants, butterflies and other insects.
In early September, parts of Kuniga Coast’s grazing land can turn white with clematis flowers. Cattle and horses avoid the poisonous plant, helping it form an unusually large flower carpet.
Spring brings Oki dandelions to Nishinoshima’s grasslands. This native species grows only in the Oki Islands; one easy clue for distinguishing it from the familiar western dandelion is the shape of the small green bracts beneath its flower.
Oki ferries still sound their horns as they pass Takuhi Shrine. It is a small modern salute to the mountain sanctuary long associated with safe sea voyages and a guiding light for sailors.
