Western edge of Kyushu, Nozaki Island where you find footprints from the past

旧野首教会

野崎島 写真1
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The island is 6.5 km long North to South, 2 km wide East to West. The area spans 7.36 square kilometers, which is comparatively large in Goto Area.
There used to be three settlements (Nozaki, Nokubi, and Funamori) on the island and around 600 people used to live there.
At this moment, there is no resident on the island except ones in charge of management and maintenance of accommodation facility for tourists.
You can still see stonewalled terraced fields, a shrine, and some remnants of old houses.
The Nokubi church building stands as if time has stopped, and it is added to the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Site as a part of "Churches and Christian Sites in Nagasaki" in 2007.

This island has a steep mountains character and keeps beautiful nature. This island's quite rich ecosystem includes wild woods around Okinokojima shrine, Japanese Wood Pigeons (designated as a National Treasure), rare species of butterflies and a lot more in Saikai National park.
More than 400 wild Japanese deers inhabit all over the island.


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The Nokubi church
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Wild Japanese deer