Kudaka Island

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Kudakasacred islandAmamikiyoNanjocycling

Photo: Nesnad / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · original

A visit to Kudaka Island is easy to underplan — bring more time, and less certainty about what you'll find, than you'd expect.

Kudaka is eight kilometres round, low, and in Ryukyuan belief the first land the creation deity Amamikiyo made. Kings of Ryukyu came here in person to worship until the practice ended in the seventeenth century, and the island still holds ritual sites that are closed to outsiders — not by fence but by convention, marked and expected to be respected.

It is a fifteen-minute high-speed boat or twenty-five-minute ferry from Azama port, and the standard way round is a rented bicycle. There is a village, a shop or two, sand roads through low forest and a beach at the northern end called Hedo-hama where the deity is said to have landed. Nothing may be taken from the island, including stones and sand. Day trips from Naha are entirely feasible and the island is emphatically not a resort.

What to know before you go

Access hours

Boats on published schedules from Azama port

Closed: Sailings cancelled in rough weather

When to go

Year-round | Spring and autumn for cycling comfort

Fee

Ferry and high-speed boat fares charged separately | Bicycle hire charged separately

Time to allow

Half a day including the crossing

Making the trip

Access notes

Kudaka, Chinen, Nanjo, offshore from Azama port. High-speed boat from Azama takes about 15 minutes and the ferry about 25 minutes to Tokujin port, operated by Kudaka Kaiun — Azama office. Bicycle hire is available at Tokujin port and in the village but numbers are limited, so ring ahead: Tokujin port waiting room 098-948-2842, Sabani 098-948-3893, Tamaki cycle hire. Do not remove stones, sand or plants from the island, and do not enter marked sacred areas.

Beyond the guidebook

**Take nothing.** Removing stones, sand, shells or plants from Kudaka is prohibited by island custom and taken seriously. This is the single rule visitors most often break. **Sacred areas are marked and closed.** Several sites, including Fubo-utaki, are off limits to non-islanders. They are signposted rather than fenced; the absence of a barrier is not permission. **Book a bicycle ahead.** Numbers are limited and a full boat can exhaust them. Ring one of the hire operators before you sail. **Fifteen or twenty-five minutes depending on the boat.** The high-speed service and the ferry run different schedules from Azama. Check the last return before you go over. **There is very little on the island.** A small shop or two, a couple of places to eat, no convenience store. Bring water.

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