For more than two centuries after Christianity was banned in Japan in the early seventeenth century, small communities of believers kept their faith in secret, disguising prayers as Buddhist chants and images of the Virgin Mary as Buddhist figures. Kuroshima, a small island off the coast of Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture, was one of the places where these hidden Christians lived and farmed, and when the ban was lifted in the 1870s they emerged openly. Their villages are part of the UNESCO listing of Hidden Christian sites in the Nagasaki region, listed in 2018.
The centre of the island is the Kuroshima church, a beautiful red brick building completed in 1902 under the direction of a French missionary priest, Father Marmand, with the islanders themselves contributing labour and materials. Inside, the arches, the wooden ceiling and the stained glass create a calm, luminous space, and the floor of the sanctuary is laid with tiles of local Arita porcelain. The church is still used by the community, so visitors should be quiet and respectful.
Getting there means taking a ferry from Ainoura port in Sasebo; check timetables and whether you can take the bike, as services are limited. The island is small, with a quiet road winding past farms, stone walls, forest and coastal views, and it is easy to explore at a gentle pace. On the mainland, the coast around Sasebo is beautiful, with the Kujukushima islands, a scatter of more than two hundred small wooded islands, visible from viewpoints above the city.
Fuel, food and lodging are available in Sasebo, a city of about a quarter of a million people, famous for its large naval base and for the Sasebo burger, a local take on the American hamburger introduced by the base. On Kuroshima itself, services are limited, so bring water and something to eat.
Riding in this part of Kyushu means driving on the left, narrow coastal roads with plenty of curves, and generally courteous traffic. Typhoons can bring heavy rain and wind in late summer and autumn, and ferries may be cancelled. Come in spring or autumn, take the early boat, and spend a few quiet hours on an island where faith survived in secret for generations.