Osakikamijima Town

13 towns opened a seamen's school.

Geiyo Seamen's School

Photo by Maglev~jawiki (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Kaidenma boat races (櫂伝馬競漕)

Towing the ceremonial barge was its real job;racing is said to have taken over.

Photo by Kazuhiro.manazuru (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Kaidenma boats appear at Higashino's Sumiyoshi Festival (Aug. 13), Kinoe's Jushichiya Festival and the festival at Okiura's Ebisu Shrine. Eighteen people ride each hand-rowed boat: 14 rowers plus a helmsman, a drummer and two more. One boat is said to take 60 shipwright-days, about half a year.

18 aboard: 14 rowers and four others
One boat: said to take 60 shipwright-days, about half a year
Held July 25 (Jushichiya) and Aug. 13 (Sumiyoshi) in 2026 (town newsletter)

02 ／ Kamigumi Tunnel (上組隧道)

Opened through donations and hand-digging,the island's first tunnel.

After about four years of work it opened in May 1929 (Showa 4). Donations paid for it and local people gave their labor, digging from the Ogoriko and Obara sides, it is said. In December 2021 the town told the assembly it was considering a new road that would bypass the tunnel.

Opened May 1929 (Showa 4), hand-dug
Paid for by donations; labor by local volunteers
Town considering a road bypassing the tunnel (Dec. 2021, town assembly)

03 ／ Motoyama Shashanbo tree (本山のシャシャンボ)

A tree usually under 5 m tallstands about 6 m on a bank.

An evergreen shrub of the heath family, its trunk rarely exceeds 20 cm across. It stands on a bank near a private house on the southwest slope of Mt. Motoyama in Nakano, with four winding branches. The prefecture calls it among the largest in the prefecture and designated it a natural monument in 1992.

Prefectural natural monument (designated Oct. 29, 1992)
About 6 m tall; crown 5.5 m east-west, 6.8 m north-south
In Nakano, on a bank near a private house (prefecture)

Living here

On an island without a bridge, boats are part of daily life.

about 7,000 people
Rural district town

Boats carry commuters and students on an island where mikan and lemon groves line the roads and shipyard cranes stand by the sea. The Nakanohana Lighthouse in the south dates from 1894 (Meiji 27); the island's 88-temple pilgrimage was founded in 1918 (Taisho 7).

People living here: 7,158people
Area: 43.11km²
Households: 3,437households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 11 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —1 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Osakikamijima Town in Japan34.270°N 132.915°E

to TakeharaOsaki Kisen30min

Travel times follow 山陽商船株式会社の公式サイト『時刻表』（http://sanyo-shosen.jp/time.html）に、竹原～垂水・白水の全便が1つの表で載っている（竹原発・垂水着・白水着／白水発・垂水発・竹原着。32便）。白水へ直行する便は竹原発06:35→白水着07:05、06:55→07:25、07:45→08:10、09:00→09:30、10:10→10:40、11:05→11:35、12:30→12:55…のように25〜30分。大崎汽船株式会社の公式サイト（http://www.oktravel.co.jp/timetable2021.html）の『竹原港→白水港・垂水港』も同じ便（06:35→07:05 など）。町公式『交通アクセス』（更新2026-03-06）は、竹原・白水航路を大崎汽船、竹原・垂水航路を山陽商船と書く (checked 2026-09-29). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 0 municipalities.

Territory of Osakikamijima Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

10.5km

Osakikamijima Town isthis kind of town.

01The National Institute of Technology, Hiroshima College of Maritime Technology in Higashino descends from the Geiyo Seamen's School, which 13 towns and villages opened as a union in 1898 (Meiji 31).
02On the island, kaidenma boats appear at festivals in Higashino, Kinoe and Okiura; Higashino's Kamigumi has a hand-dug tunnel opened in 1929, and Nakano has the prefecturally designated Motoyama Shashanbo tree.
03The Nakanohana Lighthouse in the south dates from 1894, and the Omochizuki House (大望月邸) preserves a shipping agent's home, in a town on an island not linked to the mainland by bridge.

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Osakikamijima Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗