The Mysteries of Nozaki Island

By Taryn Siegel

To the north of Ojika is a mysterious island accessible by a 20-30 minute high speed ferry – Nozaki Island. Posters advertising the destination abound around Ojika Island, showing a church shrouded in darkness, barely discernible against a black horizon. Today, the island has no residents, though up until a few years ago it was inhabited by a single man, the island’s priest. His beautiful, old Japanese house still stands, so perfectly kept that it still has the air of occupation. But in 2017 the aging priest left the island to live with his daughter in Nagasaki, leaving the island now entirely abandoned.

Definitely the most impressive part about Nozaki Island is its history. The island was known as the refuge for hidden Christians for centuries. When the Dutch missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549 he was the first person to introduce the country to Christianity. For a very brief period the foreign religion was welcomed with curiosity, but as it began to gain a stronghold, the Tokugawa Shogunate officially outlawed Christianity in 1614, leaving Japanese Christians to migrate to Japan’s southern island or face persecution.

Many of the exiled Christians found their way to Nozaki Island and built a small community there. Here in this tiny remote paradise, so far from the mainland, the hidden Christians practiced freely and lived peacefully for 250 years. But at the end of the Edo period, as more and more foreign ships started to appear on the shores of Japan, the Meiji government began to crack down more fiercely on these practicing Christian outlaws, rounding up some 1,500 Christians on the southern islands and bringing them to mainland Japan to face torture, imprisonment and, in some cases, death.

It wasn’t until 1873 that the Japanese government gave in to international pressure, lifted the ban on the religion, and released their Christian prisoners. Many of the persecuted Japanese Christians returned to the southern islands and started to rebuild their lives. The residents of Nozaki banded together and funded the construction of a small brick church, which still stands today, and was added to the tentative list for becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in in 2007. But in 1971, after a pregnant resident died due to a lack of access to medical treatment, the six remaining families decided at long last to abandon the island the move to Ojika, leaving behind their wooden houses and other structures, which today stand in eerie decrepitude, dotting the island’s little ghost towns.

The beautiful remoteness, dilapidated old houses, rolling hills and pristine beaches make Nozaki a perfect day-trip destination. Most days there is only one ferry that makes the trip to Nozaki Island each day from Ojika, departing from Ojika at 7:25am. On the weekends and during the high season another ferry is sometimes commissioned, departing at 11:10am. This high-speed ferry takes about 25 minutes, sometimes longer when the water gets particularly choppy. On the return from Nozaki, you can come back on the ferry that departed Ojika at 11:10am if it’s running, or otherwise you must be careful to hop on the last ferry of the day at 3pm. If you miss this ferry, there’s a single guest house on the island that offers bedding and a kitchen, but no showers, no towels, and no food whatsoever. The only operational buildings on the whole island are this guest house (converted from the island’s old elementary school), the visitor’s center and the island priest’s former residence, which acts essentially like a museum and has a toilet for public use. There’s no food anywhere, so be careful to pack some with you, along with at least one water bottle, which you can fill up at the visitor’s center water fountain if you need to.

After arriving on the island, you’ll be asked to step into the visitor’s center, where the two guides that run the island explain to their guests some useful tips about the island, like where all of the toilets are and what to do if you encounter a wild boar (back away slowly but don’t look away) or a snake (don’t get bitten). The explanation is all in Japanese, but they offer an English pamphlet with all of the same information, so you can just nod along uncomprehendingly and then browse the pamphlet later.

The island has two major hiking trails, both of which are rather long and arduous and difficult to complete before the 3pm ferry if you opted for the 11:10 ferry over. But there’s plenty that can be seen and enjoyed in a few hours’ trip. Start at the ghost village that’s right next to the visitor’s center and explore the eerie, half-decayed houses and gardens, connected by a series of snaking dirt paths. Following the central of these dirt paths you’ll arrive at the priest’s former residence, which you can step inside and walk all over, peering into the well-kept garden at the back. If you explore up the village’s dirt paths far enough, you should soon start running into some of the island’s 100 wild deer that roam about.

At the base of the ghost town is a dirt road leading towards the famous old church. This one’s also a bit of an uphill trek, but it only takes about 20-30 minutes before your at the church doors. The doors of the church are generally always shut, but it’s rarely locked. Go to the door at the left and push hard to see if you can make your way in.

Walking back a bit from the hill where the church stands, you’ll find a fork in the road that you originally turned right on to reach the church. Turning left instead leads you towards a sharp, downward sloping trail that gradually turns into the sands of Nokubi beach – a 300-meter long white sand beach. This is the perfect place to eat your packed picnic lunch and wile away your last hour or so napping on the sand. Just be sure to start trekking back to the dock no later than 2:15, or you may have to spend the night sleeping with the deer.