Oita · HimeshimaNo.860★★Open in map →
Himeshima
— A volcanic island of one village in the Seto Inland Sea
An island off the north tip of the Kunisaki peninsula that is also, on its own, a single village. Small volcanoes made the ground, an obsidian cliff faces the sea, and seven local legends have their own signposts.
- FromImi Port, Kunisaki
- ~20 min crossingVillage ferry from Imi
- Get off atHimeshima Port (village ferry)
- From there
- Himeshima
The sweet spot
Nothing about Himeshima is secret. The geopark boards are up, the Bon dance draws a crowd, and the prefecture promotes the cycling route. What keeps it quiet is the ferry: the number of people who can be on the island at once is set by the number of crossings, and most of them go home before the last one.
Where it is
13 more notes in Oita · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Himeshima Portthe ferry berth and the head of the village street, with the inns and shops gathered around it
- Hyoshimizua cold carbonated spring on the eastern side, counted among the island's Seven Wonders
- Himeshima Lighthousea light on the eastern headland, standing above the cliffs that face the Inland Sea
- Kannonzakia north-west headland where an obsidian cliff 40 metres high and 120 metres wide drops straight to the water
How to actually get there
- Drive or ride to Imi Port on the Kunisaki peninsula and leave the car in the free visitor parking beside the pier.
- Imi Port → Himeshima Port (village ferry, about 20 minutes).
- Hire a bicycle near the harbour and ride the island clockwise: Hyoshimizu on the east side, then the lighthouse, then Kannonzaki on the north-west shore.
- Check the return sailing before the last stretch of the loop.
- Village ferry from Imi Port
- Imi Port, on the north coast of the Kunisaki peninsula →(Himeshima village ferry, about 20 minutes)→ Himeshima Port. The village runs twelve return sailings a day, dropping to eleven from December through March, with the first leaving the island early in the morning. Buy the ticket at the terminal; there is no bridge and no other operator.
- Return from Himeshima Port
- Sailings run back to Imi through the day, with the last one in the early evening. Fix your return when you arrive rather than at the end of the afternoon — if you miss it there is no alternative crossing, and the island's beds are few.
About the place
Himeshima is an island a volcano built. Several small cones, each of which erupted only once, joined into a single piece of land, and the sea then cut their edges back into the shape you see from the ferry. Yahazu-dake, the high point, reaches 266.6 metres, and the whole island is small enough to circle by bicycle in a morning. The houses gather around the harbour on the south shore. The island sits inside Setonaikai National Park, and its coast reads as a geology lesson: obsidian cliffs, sandbars, sea caves, each with a board explaining it. Fishing and kuruma prawn farming are still the working trades here.
How to enjoy it
Take an early sailing and you can ride the whole island and still catch an afternoon boat back. Going clockwise from the harbour puts Hyoshimizu and the lighthouse in front of you first and brings you round to the black cliff at Kannonzaki with the light behind you. Come in the middle of August and the dancers work their way between the village dance grounds after dark.
Background & history
The volcanic activity that made the island goes back about 300,000 years — monogenetic cones, each erupting once and then falling silent. The obsidian they threw out was later worked into blades by the people who lived here. The legends run just as deep: alongside the story of the princess enshrined at Himekoso, the island keeps a set of seven tales known as the Seven Wonders. The Bon dance, which includes the fox dance, is a nationally selected intangible folk cultural property, and in 2013 the island was certified as a Japanese Geopark.
Before you go
- Cash
- Fares for the crossing are set by the village and posted at the terminal and on its ferry page. Carry cash for the day: this is a fishing village, not a resort, and there is little in the way of card infrastructure once you are ashore.
- Before you go
- The last sailing of the day is withdrawn from December to March, so winter visits are shorter. As with any single-route ferry, rough weather can suspend crossings altogether. Shade is scarce on the coastal roads in high summer.
- Another way
- There is no bridge to the island. Imi Port is the crossing point, reached by road across the Kunisaki peninsula from either the Oita side or northern Kyushu, and the village provides free parking beside the pier for visitors from outside Himeshima.
- After you get off
- The ferry terminal stands at the head of the harbour. Step off the pier and the village street runs along the waterfront; the village office and the harbour-front shops are a few minutes on foot, and bicycles can be hired nearby.