Why Miyakojima is Miyakojima

Miyakojima is a flat coral island in Okinawa with no rivers and no mountains, so nothing muddies the sea, which is why the colour is called Miyako blue. People come for Yonaha Maehama, seven kilometres of white sand, and for the drive across Irabu Ohashi, at 3,540 m the longest toll-free bridge in Japan. Every ship docks at Hirara Port, a short shuttle ride from the terminal, with the town 15 minutes on foot and the sights outside it.

01 · The colour

Miyako blue

Every island in Okinawa claims beautiful water. Miyako’s claim is different in kind: the island has no rivers, and that single fact explains the colour that ended up with its own name.

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02 · The ritual

Otori, the rotating toast

On most of Okinawa you drink awamori at your own pace. On Miyako there is a system, it has a name, and once it starts it does not naturally stop.

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03 · The spirits

Paantu, the mud gods

One evening a year in the north of the island, three figures come out of a sacred well wearing masks, vines and a full-body coat of stinking mud — and everything they touch is blessed.

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04 · The stone

The poll-tax stone

Near the port stands a plain upright stone, 143 centimetres tall. The story attached to it — grow taller than the stone and you owe the kingdom tax — may be legend. The tax itself was brutally real.

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05 · The crossings

Three bridges, three islands

Miyako is not one island but a small archipelago, and within living memory its neighbours were a boat ride away — or cut off entirely when the sea got up. Then, over 23 years, three bridges changed what the word “island” means here.

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