is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in Higashikunisaki District,

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,081,646 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, K ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The name ''Himeshima'' literally means "Princess Island."

Geography

The village is on a small island in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

and is sometimes referred to as Hime Island in English. The island of Himeshima is just off the

Kunisaki Peninsula The Kunisaki Peninsula (国東半島, ''Kunisaki Hantō'') is a peninsula in northern Ōita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan that juts out into the Seto Inland Sea. The peninsula is almost circular. There is Mount Futago ( 両子山, ''Futago-san'') in t ...

on the island of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

. The island consists of four volcanically-formed

islets An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and ...

which are now connected by

sandbars In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

to form Himeshima Island. Signs of the volcanic activity which formed the now-connected islets 300,000 years ago can be found throughout the island."Himeshima Geopark"
Retrieved 7 June 2024 The tallest mountain on the island is Mount Yahazu (矢筈岳, ''Yahazu-dake''). It is a

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

that was active 90,000 years ago. It is sometimes referred to as "Himeshima Fuji" due to its importance to the people of the island and its distinctive

lava domes In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow Extrusive rock, extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6 ...

Transportation

With the mainland

Himeshima is accessible by ferry from Imi Port ( 伊美港) in

Kunisaki is a small coastal city located in Ōita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 25,721 in 13082 households, and a population density of 81 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kunisaki co ...

and has 12 regularly scheduled round-trip departures per day. It is about a 20 minute ride one way.

On the island

There is a village bus which travels around the island six times per day. Bicycles and ultra-compact electric cars are available to rent on the island.

Population

As of 2022, the village has an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,642. The total area is 6.98 km². There are 833 households and 98 businesses employing 389 people.

Economy

The main occupations are fishing and shrimp farming. The kuruma prawn ( 車海老, ''kurumaebi'') and ''

hijiki (''Sargassum fusiforme'', syn. ''Hizikia fusiformis''), sometimes called hiziki, is a brown sea vegetable that grows wild on the rocky coastlines of East Asia. Hijiki has been a part of the Japanese culinary sphere and diet for centuries. H ...

'' are local specialities on the island."Himeshima Festivals"
Retrieved 7 June 2024/"姫島を知る”
Retrieved 6 June 2024 Tourism is another major industry with nearly 40,000 people visiting the island every year. Himeshima has launched a website to promote itself as " IT Island" in order to attract IT companies and personnel to the island.

Festivals and events

Every summer around

Obon or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ance ...

, there is type of ''

bon odori or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ance ...

'' ( 盆踊り) called "fox dance" (キツネ踊り, ''

kitsune The , in popular Japanese tradition, are foxes or fox spirits that possess supernatural abilities such as shapeshifting, and capable of bewitching people. General overview , though literally a 'fox', becomes in folklore a ' fox spirit', o ...

odori'') featuring dancers, particularly young children, dressed as

foxes Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

. In October of every year, there is a "Kuruma Prawn Festival" (車えび祭) for visitors to enjoy the local specialty. Visitors can also enjoy the popular ''kitsune odori'' at this event as well. Every year, chestnut tiger butterflies can be seen on the island from mid-May to mid-June as well as in mid-October as they stop in Himeshima during their long migrations. The butterflies, called ''Asagimadara'' (アサギマダラ) in Japanese, draw many visitors to the island.

The "Seven Wonders of Himeshima"

On Himeshima, there are seven popular sightseeing locations, all with legends surrounding them, which are referred to as the "Seven Wonders of Himeshima" ( 姫島七不思議, ''himeshima nana fushigi''). They are as follows: * Amida Oysters: in a cave under the island's lighthouse, there are

oysters Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of Seawater, salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in Marine (ocean), marine or Brackish water, brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly Calcification, calcified, a ...

which are said to never come into contact with seawater. It is believed that eating them will cause stomachaches. * Hyoshimizu: iron rich and naturally carbonated

onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...

with water relatively cool in temperature. A local legend says that a princess who wanted to rinse her mouth after applying ''

ohaguro is the name given in Japan to the custom of blackening one's teeth with a solution of iron filings and vinegar. It was especially popular between the Heian and Edo periods, from the 10th century until the late 19th century, but the opening of ...

'' caused the water to start flowing. * The Inverted Willow: a

willow tree Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

that is believed to have sprouted after a princess placed her

toothpick A toothpick is a small thin stick of wood, plastic, bamboo, metal, bone or other substance with at least one and sometimes two pointed ends to insert between teeth to remove detritus, usually after a meal. Toothpicks are also used for festive ...

into the ground upside-down. * The Ohaguro Stone: a stone which is believed to bear marks from when the princess applied her ''

''. * Sennin-do: a small

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

hall surrounded by an

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

rock formation of volcanic origin. Local legends say that 1,000 people hid here on New Year's Eve to avoid paying taxes to a local lord (''Sennin'' literally means "1,000 people")."Charming Himeshima , Oita’s Bucolic “Island of Princesses”
Retrieved June 6 2024"姫島七不思議"
Himeshima Official Site. Retrieved 6 June 2024.] * Ukisu: a ''

torii A is a traditional culture of Japan, Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred, and a spot where kami are welcomed and thought to ...

'' on a small piece of land in the ocean which is said to enshrine a ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

'' of fishing. It is believed that the ''torii'' never becomes submerged by the sea. * Ukita: a rice field in which a

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

is said to have been buried. According to the legend, the rice fields began to shake due to the snake's anger.

Education

There are currently two schools on the island, Himeshima Elementary School (姫島村立姫島小学校) and Himeshima Junior High School (姫島村立姫島中学校).

Politics

In the

2017 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 22 October 2017. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan – 289 single-member districts and eleven proportional blocks – in order to appoint all 465 members (down from 475) of t ...

, 77.51% of Himeshima's proportional ballots were cast for either one of the two parties in the conservative ruling coalition (the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

and

Komeito , formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. Since 2012, i ...

) or one of the two minor LDP-allied conservative parties (

Party for Japanese Kokoro The , officially the , was a Japanese political party. It was formed as the on 1 August 2014 by a group of National Diet, Diet members led by Shintarō Ishihara. The party adopted its final name in December 2015, and ended up dissolving in Novemb ...

and

New Party Daichi The New Party Daichi (; ''Shintō Daichi'') is a Japanese political party. The party works based on jurisdiction and administrative divisions. The party's leader is Muneo Suzuki, a member of the House of Councillors who formerly caucused with t ...

), making it the most conservative municipality in the country in this election under that definition (excluding Kuroshima Island's 82.76% conservative voting result, as this island is technically a part of

Matsuura, Nagasaki 270px, Monument to Matsura clan 270px, Ryuo Falls 270px, Matsuura coast is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 20,667 in 9936 households, and a population density of 160 people per km2. The t ...

and not its own municipality). In 2024, Akio Fujimoto (藤本昭夫), the head of Himeshima village, retired after serving for 40 years. He was replaced by Yasuharu Daikai (大海靖治) in an uncontested election.

Famous people

* Eiichi Nishimura - Politician and minister

References

External links

*
Himeshima official website

Himeshima, Ōita
- General information about Himeshima

- Information about Himeshima cuisine Villages in Ōita Prefecture {{Oita-geo-stub