Kashiragashima is a scrap of rock off the northeast coast of Nakadōri, in the Gotō Islands west of Nagasaki, and for a long time nobody wanted to live there. In the nineteenth century the island was used as a place to isolate smallpox patients, and that very isolation drew a small group of Hidden Christians, Japanese Catholics who had kept their faith in secret through more than two centuries of persecution. They settled in a cove, farmed the steep slopes and fished. After the ban on Christianity was lifted, they built a church out of the local sandstone, quarried and carried by hand, under the direction of the master builder Tetsukawa Yosuke, who designed many churches across the region. Completed in 1919, it is a sturdy, beautiful building, and the village is part of the UNESCO listing of Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region, inscribed in 2018.
The church is small and still cared for by the community, so visits usually need to be arranged in advance through the local information centre, and you may be asked to take a shuttle rather than ride to the door. Inside, the stone walls and a ceiling painted with flowers create a calm, gentle atmosphere.
Getting to the Gotō Islands takes some planning: ferries run from Nagasaki and Sasebo, carrying vehicles, and the crossing takes a few hours, less on the fast boats that do not carry bikes. On the islands, the roads are narrow and winding, following the coast around inlets and over headlands, with views of the sea, cliffs and small fishing harbours. Traffic is light, but watch for fallen rocks, gravel and the occasional slow truck. Typhoons can disrupt ferries and roads in late summer and autumn.
Services on the main island of Nakadōri are limited but adequate, with fuel stations and shops in the town of Shinkamigotō, but do not expect to find them on the smaller islands. Plan ahead and keep your tank full. Gotō udon, thin noodles made with camellia oil, are a local speciality, often eaten as jigoku-daki, dipped straight from the boiling pot, and the seafood, especially fresh fish and squid, is superb.