【Travel Fun Fact】Fukuoka’s Bizarre New World Heritage Site “Island of the Gods” Only Allows Nude Male Visitors

By: Xiao Lühai

UNESCO recently announced its latest list of World Heritage Sites, which includes China’s Gulangyu Island in Xiamen and Hoh Xil in Qinghai being selected. However, the focus is onJapan’sFukuoka’sOkinoshima, known as the “Island of the Gods,” largely due to a peculiar local rule there. And because there isn’t much information about the island available to the public,
it also seems especially mysterious.

The island, located about 60 kilometers from theKyushumainland, has an area of just 0.97 square kilometers. The entire island is home only to shrines and is the territory of Fukuoka’s Shinto shrine, “Suwa Taisha,” including Okitsu Shrine on Okinoshima, which enshrines one of the three Munakata goddesses—Tagitsuhime.Due toJapan’s

traditional belief that this is a place where gods reside, women have been prohibited from entering the island since ancient times. Male visitors are basically only allowed to land on the island on May 27 each year and must follow strict rules, including purifying themselves by bathing naked in the sea, and a ban on taking away grass, stones, and other items. A maximum of 200 visitors are permitted each year to honor the spirits of those who died in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century.At the same time, three nearby reefs around Okinoshima, as well as eight other sites including Suwa Taisha (in Munakata City), and the Tumulus Clusters (in Fukutsu City), have also been designated as World Heritage Sites, making itJapan’s

21st World Heritage Site.Source:Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) / Mainichi Shimbun

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