Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado and Shitsu Village in Sotome

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado

   Hirado is an island at the far northwest of Kyushu, joined to the mainland by a bridge, and it has a stranger history than most. In 1609 the Dutch East India Company opened a trading post here, and for a while Hirado was the only place in Japan where Europeans traded openly, before the shogunate shifted them to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki in 1641. The town still has a harbour and a castle on the hill, and the sea is never far from any road.

   Read the complete Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado is where the day begins. Next is Villages on Kuroshima Island.

2. 2. Villages on Kuroshima Island

   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.

   Read the complete Villages on Kuroshima Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villages on Kuroshima Island comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ono Village in Sotome.

3. 3. Ono Village in Sotome

   For more than two centuries Christianity was banned in Japan, and in the villages along the Sotome coast north of Nagasaki, communities practised their faith in secret, disguising prayers as Buddhist chants and hiding images of the Virgin as the bodhisattva Kannon. These were the Hidden Christians, the Kakure Kirishitan, and their villages, including Ono, are part of the World Heritage listing of Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region, inscribed in 2018. At Ono the small Ono church, built by the French missionary Marc Marie de Rotz in the late nineteenth century after the ban was lifted, has thick walls built in a local technique of stones bound with mortar, known as de Rotz walls.

   Read the complete Ono Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Ono Village in Sotome. Next is Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine.

4. 4. Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine

   From the sea, Hashima looks like a battleship: a small rocky island off Nagasaki surrounded by high concrete walls, crowded with tall, empty apartment blocks. The Japanese call it Gunkanjima, battleship island, and it is the most famous ruin of Japan's industrial age. Mitsubishi mined coal here from undersea seams from the late nineteenth century, and as the mine grew the island was extended with land reclaimed from the sea and built up with concrete housing, schools, a hospital and shops. At its peak it was one of the most densely populated places on Earth. When the mine closed in 1974, everyone left within weeks, and the island has been slowly crumbling ever since.

   Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine, about halfway. Next is Shitsu Village in Sotome.

5. 5. Shitsu Village in Sotome

   Sotome is a stretch of rugged coast north of Nagasaki, where steep hills drop into the East China Sea, and the village of Shitsu clings to its slopes. During the centuries when Christianity was banned in Japan, the farmers and fishermen of this remote area kept their faith in secret, passing down prayers and rituals from generation to generation, hiding their devotion behind Buddhist and Shinto practices. When the ban was lifted in 1873, many of them returned to the Catholic Church. The Shitsu church, built in 1882 under the direction of the French missionary Marc Marie de Rotz, stands on a hill above the sea, a simple white building with a low profile designed to resist the strong winds. De Rotz was more than a priest: he taught the villagers to make bread, pasta and textiles, built a clinic and a workshop, and his legacy is still honoured locally. The village and church are part of the UNESCO listing of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region.

   Read the complete Shitsu Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Shitsu Village in Sotome sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine.

6. 6. back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine comes up about 295 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ono Village in Sotome.

7. 7. back through Ono Village in Sotome

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ono Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 350 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ono Village in Sotome. Next is back through Villages on Kuroshima Island.

8. 8. back through Villages on Kuroshima Island

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villages on Kuroshima Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Villages on Kuroshima Island, late in the day. Next is Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado.

9. 9. Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 484 km.