Kamishima

This island sits just 14km northeast from Toba Port and 3.5km west of Cape Irago in Aichi Prefecture. While only 3.9km in circumference, this small island is believed to be true to its named and ruled by the “kami” or gods. This island is also known as the film location of “The Sound of Waves” and adaption of the love story written by Yukio Mishima.

The Sound of Waves is a widely beloved story that has been made into 5 different movies, telling the story of true love between the fisherman Shinji and a diver girl named Hatsue. In 1953 Mishima himself visited Kamishima twice as part of research for his novel.

The sentry point ruins are a critical place featured in the climax of “The Sound of Waves”, said to have been used to confirm the impact of cannons fired in the Iragosuido Strait during the war. Yatsuhiro Shrine, which his home to hundreds of treasures dating back to the Kofun era, is even featured as a place where Shinji and Hatsue visited together. The Kamishima Lighthouse, with over 100 years of history behind it, is also featured in the story.

The island landscape is made entirely of mountains, making for a unique island look where homes are built in a staircase pattern up from the port. On the island you can also find a unique topography of Karst landscape near the island’s southern point. The white, craggy stone faces appear in “The Sound of Waves” as “Niwa no Hama”

The island is rich nature escape where you can even see small gray-faced hawks in October, or chestnut tiger butterflies as they migrate across the changing seasonal air currents. In the winter a number of cormorant birds can be seen as they nest along the island cliffs.