Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. Robert Walker
outer rim that is bare, barren coral rock. That’s the section that’s washed over by the sea in very high tides.
Kotakara Island has a complete circle island road. Taking it from the port, which is on the island’s southwest side, either clockwise or counter-clockwise, to the only village, which is on the island’s northeast side, is also almost exactly three-quarters of a mile (1 kilometer). You just can’t go too far on Kotakara. There are three minshuku in the village and a free hot spring natural bath. There’s another small port on the island’s northern side as well, but it’s for small fishing craft, not the commercial ferry service. So, if you were looking for a getaway to a place that’s not too big and not too busy, you might have found your type of place here.
10 TAKARAJIMA 宝島
On a southbound sailing out of Kagoshima, this coral, not volcanic, island is the last stop in the Tokaras. There are two more Tokara Islands to the southwest, but they are uninhabited and no stops are made by the ferry. Takarajima (宝島; Takara-jima) is the seventh inhabited island and the ferry’s final port of call in the archipelago. Again, depending on the sailing, the ship alternates its twice-weekly journeys with once a week overnight stops at Takara, reversing and returning to Kagoshima the next day, or once a week continuing to Nazé City on Amami Ōshima before reversing and sailing back to Kagoshima the next day. There is no airport on the island.
Along with Akusekijima, Takarajima is the most popular island of all the Tokaras for visitors. It has a few minor sights, some good hiking opportunities, a bit of historical lore and, unlike many Tokaras, a few beaches.
Unlike the circular-, rectangular-, egg- or torso-shaped islands previously visited in the Tokara group, Takara is a nicely formed triangle. Its Pacific (eastern) shoreline is just about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long and its northern top coastline is also approximately 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) across. The island’s western to southwestern side, which faces the East China Sea, is 3 miles (5 kilometers) in length. All told, this gives the island an area of 2.75 square miles (7.14 square kilometers) and a circumference of 8.5 miles (13.77 kilometers). Takara Island’s highest spot is Mt Imakira (イマキラ岳; Imakira-daké) at 958 feet (292 meters) above sea level. Takarajima also has several other peaks over 660 feet (200 meters), among them Mt Hiru (蛭岳; Hiru-daké), Mt Gonata (ごんた山; Gonata-yama), and “Goddess” Mountain, Mt Megami (女神山; Mégami-yama).
Exactly in the center of the northern shoreline is a good-sized natural harbor where the ferry lands, and only a few hundred feet up the road from the port is the island’s only village. There are approximately 120 residents on Takara. The islanders are dependent mainly on fishing and seasonal tourism. There are four minshuku inns available for tourists. The town also has a free public onsen with separate facilities for men and women. The island is ringed and crisscrossed by a series of roads and virtually no place is inaccessible. You can even drive to the top of Imakira. There’s a great observation platform and viewpoint up there.
Approach to Takarajima.
Great limestone cave and Kannon-dō shrine.
The name Takarajima literally translates as “Treasure Island” and the few travel brochures one finds on the Tokaras usually make the claim that Takara was the inspiration, if not the actual burial place, of pirate’s gold, believed to be at the center of Robert Louis Stevenson’s work Treasure Island. The tourist information map displayed at the harbor where the ferry arrives states: “As the name Takarajima (Treasure Island) implies, there is a legendary story that says Captain Kidd once hid his treasures on this island. There is a limestone cave which is believed to be the place where treasures were hidden. This island has been visited by many explorers and bounty hunters from all over Japan and the world.”
The legend has it that Kidd and his men attacked Takarajima seeking food and cattle from the island’s inhabitants. They were refused and as a result 23 of the pirates landed and burned the inhabitants alive in a lime cave. Afterwards, it is said that Kidd hid his treasure in the cave and never came back for it due to his execution in England. In real life, Captain William Kidd (ca. 1654–1701), a Scottish seaman and privateer, sailed the waters of Britain, the Bay of Fundy, New England, New York, the Caribbean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and Madagascar. He was eventually tried in London for piracy on the high seas, convicted and hanged. His body was gibbeted—left to hang and decompose in an iron cage—over the River Thames for three years as a warning to other pirates and ne’er-do-wells.
“Treasure Island”—Takarajima?
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson’s (1850–94) Treasure Island was first published in 1883. It quickly became one of the most popular books for young people ever written. Its depictions of pirates and adventure, tales of buried gold, treasure maps marked with an X, and peg-legged, bloodthirsty seamen with parrots on their shoulders soon became archetypes of what it means to be a pirate. Stevenson was 30 years old when he started writing the book in the summer of 1881 while in the Scottish Highlands. Starting at an early age, and although sickly (he was believed to have suffered from tuberculosis), he traveled widely, including journeys to Europe, North America, Hawaii and many islands of the South Pacific. At the age of 44 he died and was buried in Samoa. There is no evidence to suggest that he ever visited, or indeed ever heard of, Takarajima. Rather, the most widely speculated upon contenders for his Treasure Island are Unst in Scotland’s Shetland Islands, Norman Island or Dead-Man’s Chest Island in the British Virgin Islands of the Caribbean, or Osborn, a small islet in Brielle, New Jersey’s Manasquan River, where Stevenson once spent a month. Most scholars agree that it’s probably Unst. The drawing of Treasure Island at right resembles that island and is thought to have been penned by Stevenson’s own hand. It was published in an early edition of the book.
So far as is known, William Kidd never sailed the waters of Japan—or anywhere in Asia for that matter. Therefore, it is doubtful that there is any truth to Takarajima’s legend of Captain Kidd and his buried treasure. And although it is true that Robert Louis Stevenson spent a good part of his short life in the Pacific—he traveled in the South Pacific and died and is buried on the island of Samoa—he had no known association with any of the islands of the North Pacific or Japan. It is highly improbable, therefore, that he knew of this particular Treasure Island, Takarajima.
Whether the treasure stories were inspired by the limestone cave or whether the cave inspired the legends, or whether the mere coincidence of the name “Treasure Island” is behind the legends, it’s hard to know, but in any case, Takarajima’s Kannon-dō Cave (観音堂; Kannon-dō) is an interesting little spot and worth a visit. It’s located a little over a mile (2 kilometers) from the village on the island’s west side. There are several small shrines within the cave, including a Kannondō shrine. Note that the cave is also called “Dai shoun yuu-dō” (大鐘乳洞).
If the limestone cave doesn’t impress you, you can walk about 985 feet (300 meters) down to one of Takara’s beaches, this one over a mile (2 kilometers) long and encompassing virtually the entire mid-section of Takara’s west coast. There are also a couple of small beaches on Takara’s southeast and northeast shore, plus the island’s best beach, the Ōkago bathing beach (大籠海水浴場; Ōkago-kaisui-yoku-jō), which is adjacent to the port. None of Takara’s beaches are great, but they’re modestly sandy and accessible, something that’s not true on most of the other Tokara Islands.
For many visitors, Takara’s big “sight” is the fanciful mural at the port. For one, you can’t miss it when you arrive. It’s a giant, wildly imaginative drawing that covers most of the cemented hillside. Whatever your take on the aesthetics, it has to be said that it’s different.
The last sightseeing spot we’ll mention is the island’s final spot: the southernmost extremity, Cape Araki (荒木崎; Araki-zaki). Here, the triangular-shaped Tarakajima narrows down to its most acute angle. The road