Red Cliff Sekiheki

Red Cliff Sekiheki

Sekiheki is a large, colourful cliff almost 1k long on the south coast of Chiburi Island, Chiburijima.

Chiburijima is the southernmost, smallest, and least-popu lated of the 4 inhabited islands of the group of islands known as Oki off the coast of Shomane.

The Oki Islands are part of the Daisen-Oki National Park, and since 2013 have also been a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Geoparks tend to focus on the geology of a place and also tend to have a lot of signage and information boards explaining what you can see.

Sekiheki is a great spot to see the result of various volcanic activities 6 million years ago. The Oki islands themselves are a sunken caldera.

The sections of cliff that are red were formed from magma with a high concentration of iron-oxide.

The Oki Islands are one of my favorite three places in Japan and other posts from them can be found by clicking this link.

Mount Akahage

 

325 meters above sea level, Mount Akahage is the highest point on the small island of Chiburijima, a mere 5 miles square and with just 600 inhabitants.

It is the smallest of the four inhabited islands collectively known as the Oki islands in the Japan Sea off the coast of Shimane.

The Oki islands are the remnants of a sunken caldera and this can be clearly seen from the top of Mount Akahage.

There is no flat land on the island, so no rice is grown, however they do raise a lot of cattle, and whereas most farm animals in japan are raided indoors, the slopes of Mount Akahage are home to herds of grazing cows.

Kawai Springs Chiburijima

Chiburijima is the smallest of the four inhabited islands that make up the Oki Islands of the coast of Shimane. With only 600 residents there are not a lot of shrines or temples, and one of the most popular sacred spots is the springs just outside the village of Kawai.

Springs will often have a statue next to them, but here there are lots including a Fudo Myo I was glad to see. There were numerous other Buddhist figures, but the most were of Jizo including a large one and multiple smaller ones.

To say that Japanese culture has an obsession with ranking things would be an understatement. The spring here is classed as one of the Top !00 Exquisite and Well Conserved Waters of Shimane.

Also unusual for the Oki islands is the statue of a tanuki. They are not native to the islands and Chiburijima is the only island with some because of an accidental introduction about 60 years ago. They are said to now outnumber the humans by three to one.