Hamahiga Island

Hamahiga is a small island off the Katsuren peninsula, reachable by road over the Kaichu Doro causeway, and it holds two of the most significant sites in Ryukyuan creation belief. Amamichu and Shirumichu, the ancestral pair from whom Okinawans are said to descend, are held to have lived here.

The tomb of Amamichu is on a rock islet off the eastern shore of Higa village, walled and reached at low water. Shirumichu is a limestone cave in the forest at the southern end of the village, up 108 stone steps, where the pair are said to have raised their children; it is prayed at for fertility and is one of the most-visited sacred sites on the island chain. The village itself has narrow lanes, coral walls and red tiles, and drivers are asked to crawl through it.