Southwest Kochi · OkinoshimaNo.904★★Open in map →
Okinoshima
— Kochi's granite island of stone-walled lanes
A granite island off Sukumo in southwestern Kochi, reached only by the city boat. Its two villages climb the slope on piled stone walls and stone stairways, a townscape picked in 2009 for a national list of island landscapes.
- FromSukumo Station (Tosa Kuroshio Railway Sukumo Line)
- ~50 min at seaCity ferry, two sailings a day
- Okinoshima
The sweet spot
This is not an undiscovered island. The city writes it up, the prefecture lists it, and the local tourism office gives it a page of its own. What keeps it quiet is the water and the timetable: two sailings a day, no bridge, and a crossing long enough that nobody arrives here by accident.
Where it is
19 more notes in Kochi · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Hahajima Portthe northern landing, where the village starts at the quay and the island's shop and inns stand
- The stone lanes of Hahajimapiled retaining walls and stone stairways stepping up the slope behind the harbour
- The Imose-yama traila marked path to the island's highest point, with sea on every side from the top
- Shiraiwa Cape Parka headland park between the two villages, with a lookout and a campsite
- Hirosethe southern village and the boat's other call, built on the same stacked stone
How to actually get there
- Tosa Kuroshio Railway Sukumo Line to Sukumo Station.
- Taxi west to Katashima Port, for the Sukumo city ferry.
- Katashima Port to Hahajima Port on Okinoshima, on the 7:00 or the 14:30 sailing.
- Hahajima quay to the stone stairways above the harbour, then the island road south towards Shiraiwa Cape and Hirose.
- Sukumo Station to Katashima Port and the boat
- Sukumo Station is the end of the Tosa Kuroshio Railway's Sukumo Line. Katashima Port, where the city boat leaves, is a short taxi ride west of the station. Boarding is handled at the port office well before the sailing time, so treat the departure as a deadline rather than an arrival.
- Coming back off the island
- The same boat turns round and works its way back. There are only two round trips in the day, so your return is decided the moment you choose your outward sailing. Ask at the port office when your landing is called on the homeward leg, and fix that before you start walking.
About the place
Okinoshima sits out in the sea southwest of Sukumo, at the western edge of Kochi. The island is granite throughout, and the rock leaves it with cliffs and steep ground rather than anywhere flat to build. The two villages solved that the same way. Hahajima on the north side and Hirose on the south are stacked up the hillside on retaining walls of piled stone, and stone stairways run between the houses where a street would be elsewhere. Terraces of the same stonework climb behind them. Nothing connects the island to the mainland but the boat.
How to enjoy it
Two boats a day leave Katashima Port, at 7:00 and at 14:30, and the crossing runs from about fifty minutes depending on which call is yours. The early one is the one that gives you a day: the lanes above Hahajima in the morning, the cape park in the middle of it, Hirose before the boat comes round again. Outside the two villages there are no vending machines and no shops, so carry water and something to eat.
Background & history
For much of the Edo period the island was split in two. The northern half belonged to Iyo Province under the Uwajima domain and the southern half to Tosa under the Kochi domain, and the two argued for generations over where the line ran. It was settled largely on the Tosa side's terms through the efforts of Nonaka Kenzan, chief retainer of the Tosa domain. The island later became part of Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park, and in 2009 its stone walls and stone stairways were named to Shima no Takara Hyakkei, a national list of island landscapes.
Before you go
- Cash
- Tickets are bought at the port before boarding. On the island there is a small shop in each village and one place to eat, and no bank; take cash for the day and more than you think if you plan to stay the night.
- Before you go
- Sailings are weather-dependent and are cancelled outright when the sea is up. Away from the two villages there are no vending machines, no shops and no shelter, and the road between them runs above the cliffs. Nothing on the island runs late.
- Another way
- An electric rental bicycle can be picked up at Hahajima, and bicycles and small motorcycles can be carried on the boat, which is the difference between seeing one village and seeing both. A school bus doubles as the island's bus service, but it does not run every day.
- After you get off
- Sukumo Station is on the mainland and no walking route reaches the island from it; the pier at Katashima and then the boat cover the rest. The boat ties up at Hahajima Port on the north side and Hirose Port on the south, and both villages begin at the quay. Turn inland and the stone stairways start within a minute.