Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. Robert Walker
(民宿; lit. “small inn” or “pension”). There are also several good restaurants, but otherwise there is not too much going on in Nishinoomote. The town’s greatest attraction is an excellent Gun Museum that we’ll mention in more detail below.
Otatsu Metatsu Rock, a black basalt formation.
Overall, the island is sparsely populated. Indeed, much of it seems wild and uninhabited. Although sugar cane is grown, it’s not densely cultivated as it is on so many islands in the Ryukyus. Here, it seems more like an afterthought, just the occasional cane field here and there.
Although it may be technically correct to characterize Tanegashima as “flat,” that term really doesn’t fully describe the topography, for in many places it is moderately to quite hilly, with most scenic ups and downs in all directions. In fact, the island’s highest point is a not too shabby 925 feet (282 meters) at Mt Tennyogakura (天女ケ倉山; Ten-nyo gakura-yama). It’s on the island’s northeast side, about a 5-mile (8-kilometer) drive from Nishinoomote. Tanegashima is a very pretty island to drive around. Moreover, it has a beautiful coastline—and a lot of it. Its shores vary considerably, from great black basalt rock formations, as at Otatsu Metatsu Rock (雄龍雌龍の岩; Otatsu Metatsu no iwa; lit. “Male Dragon–Female Dragon Rock”) along the central west coast to extremely fine white sand beaches found in several places, but most famously along the full length of the island’s southern coast. Along the southeast shore, you’ll find Chikura Caverns (千座の岩屋; Chikura no iwa ya), a group of water-eroded caves on a white sand beach. The caves can be entered at low tide. There are picnic tables and some foods stands here as well.
Most visitors will arrive by sea or by air, for there is an airport. By sea, and depending on the season, there are 3–5 high-speed “Rocket” or “Toppy” jet hydrofoils per day. The less than two-hour sailing originates in Kagoshima, but one or two per day continue over to nearby Yakushima. Less expensive, but of course slower, the Cosmo Line runs the vehicle, freight and passenger ferry “Princess Wakasa.” It’s a beautiful ship and a comfortable sail, a little less than four hours. Most of the year, service is daily except Sundays. In the busy summer season, it runs every day.
The Toppy hydrofoil in Tanegashima Port.
Alternatively, there is a ferry service, though less frequent, to Yakushima from a second city on Tanegashima, the southwestern port of Shimama (島間; Shimama). If you are planning on using that port, be sure to double check your ferry schedule.
For those in more of a hurry, Tanegashima has a small, modern airport more or less located in the center of the island, about 9.5 miles (15 kilometers) and 20 minutes south of Nishinoomote. There are usually about five flights a day to Kagoshima, which take 30 minutes, and occasional service to Osaka and Fukuoka. All flights are on Japan Air Commuter turboprop planes.
Tanegashima is well known for at least two things. First, on August 25, 1543, its southernmost point, Cape Kadokura (門倉岬; Kadokura-misaki) was the landing site of the first Europeans to enter Japan. The ship, which had been blown off course in the waters between China and Okinawa, carried several Portuguese sailor/explorer/adventurers, among them, so he claimed, Fernão Mendes Pinto (ca. 1509–83). According to his memoirs, he was the first European to set foot in Japan and to introduce the matchlock arquebus, a type of firearm.
Although Pinto’s claims are subject to dispute (other accounts place him in India or Burma at the same time he supposedly landed in Japan), there’s no doubt that firearms were introduced by the Portuguese into Japan at this time. Indeed, for the next several hundred years, the Japanese name for a gun was Tanégashima Téppō (種子島鉄砲). Whether it was Pinto who introduced firearms is the subject of the controversy. Somewhat like Marco Polo’s Travels, Pinto’s tales are so extraordinary, so fantastical and so imaginative, it’s impossible to accurately assess them. On the other hand, his accounts of events and life in many far-flung places of 16th-century Asia are detailed so perfectly, no one doubts he was witness to them. His great autobiographical work is entitled Peregrinação (The Pilgrimage). It was published posthumously in 1614.
Because of this Portuguese–Japanese historical connection, Tanegashima’s island’s largest city, Nishinoomote, has a “sister” city in Vila do Bispo, Portugal. Nishinoomote’s Gun Museum is built in the shape of the early visiting ship, a Chinese junk, and there are several historical plaques and commemorative markers celebrating Portuguese–Japanese friendship around the island.
Cosmo Line’s Princess Wakasa provides a comfortable sail to Tanegashima from Kagoshima.
The Tanegashima Gun Museum.
The Gun Museum, which is formally known as the Tanegashima Center for Research and Development (種子島開発総合センター; Tanégashima kaihatsu sōgō sentā) but usually referred to as Teppō Hall (鉄砲館; Teppō-kan; lit. “iron-tube” (gun) hall), is for most visitors the highlight of Nishinoomote. There are over 100 priceless original early firearms. On display are weapons from all phases of their early development. In addition, the museum displays examples of Japanese metalworking skills used in the 16th century to produce scissors, samurai swords and metal armor.
Tanega Island’s second big claim to fame is that it’s the headquarters of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Tanegashima Space Center (種子島宇宙 センター; Tanégashima uchū sentā). Located at the southeastern end of the island, JAXA and the Space Center are the heart of Japan’s research and development of rockets, missiles and satellites. The Space Center develops, tests, launches, tracks and retrieves rocket engines and satellites.
The launch complexes are open daily to the public except Mondays unless there is an actual space launch. In that case, only press and media people are allowed on the complex for viewing. The general public may view space launches from a number of designated points on the southern end of the island. The Space Exhibition Hall in the Space Center allows visitors to study everything from space development to planet exploration. The Space Center also includes a Space Information Center, a Rocket Launch Theatre and a Museum Gift Shop. The center includes exhibits on such things as the mechanisms and functions of satellites, the launching, tracking and controlling of rockets and the International Space Station project.
The Tanégashima Téppō Arquebus, Forerunner of the Modern Rifle
The Portuguese (European) Arquebus was a muzzle-loaded firearm with a matchlock firing device. Used between the 15th and 17th centuries, its successor was the flintlock musket. Immediately after their introduction in Japan, the weapons were widely reproduced and had a major impact on civil wars of that era. Japanese craftsmen and metallurgists were able to faithfully copy the designs and reproduce them in quantity due to their skills at manufacturing high-quality steel for traditional weapons, notably the Japanese blades known as katana (刀), otherwise known as the Japanese backsword and commonly referred to as samurai swords. The history of Japan’s use of Western firearms was brilliantly detailed in Noel Perrin’s essay “Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543–1879,” published in 1979.
A rocket launch at the Tanegashima Space Center.
Essentially, visitors are permitted to roam about most of the complex on their own self-guided tours. There is no admission charge. Guided tours in English or Japanese may be reserved but those arrangments must be made in advance.
But if you’re not all that interested in