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Furthermore, due to how remote the island was, historically the residents had little access to medicine, both western and traditional. Harsh realities of everyday life on the island meant that the islanders turned to religion for spiritual help and strength to tackle their daily challenges. Both Shinto and Buddhism used to play a big role in the lives of the islanders, who turned to gods and buddhas with prayers for health, big catches, and safe travel through the treacherous seas.

On Kozushima, religion is strongly tied to fishing: it’s the fishermen who take care of the shrines and who play the biggest role during the festivals. Their families usually have the strongest ties to the Shinto shrines and it’s not uncommon for fishermen to also work as priests part-time.

Main Deities on the Island

The main Shinto deities worshipped on the island are in fact considered to be the relatives of Kotoshiro-no-mikoto, the god who travelled from Izumo to Izu Peninsula in the islands’ foundation myth. His wife, Awanome-no-mikoto, is worshipped in the Awa-no-mikoto Shrine. According to the local beliefs, she is very fond of the colorful stones scattered across Nagahama Beach and is known to curse anyone who tries to take some home. The locals approach her with offerings of flat stones sprinkled with sand from the beach. His eldest son, Monoimina-no-mikoto, has a shrine dedicated to him on a hill overlooking the Kozushima Port, and the younger son, Hyuga-no-mikoto, is said to dwell in his shrine near Tako Bay. Hyuga Brewery, an excellent microbrewery operating on the island, is named after his shrine.

Another important deity on the island is Ryujin, a dragon deity protecting the fishermen, enshrined both in a small shrine in the center of the Kozushima Port and in the middle of Fudo Pond, high up on the top of Mt. Tenjo. However, the main deity enshrined in the Fudo Pond is Fudo Myo’o (lit. “The Unmovable Wisdom King”), after whom the famous heart-shaped pond is named. Fudo Myo’o was originally a Buddhist deity who removed the obstacles to enlightenment and vanquishing evil. However, on Kozushima he is venerated as a patron of the fishermen. At the end of the year, locals gather around Fudo Pond to make offerings of ritual sake, which they then share among themselves.

Jizo and Dosojin Statues

You can find numerous Jizo statues on Kozushima. Small stone Jizo statues, often adorned with red kerchiefs, are a common sight in rural Japan. Jizo is a Japanese interpretation of the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, and in Japanese folk Buddhism, he is viewed as a protector of children and savior of the souls of the dead. 

More than 30 Jizo statues are gathered in a remote and inaccessible area in the northeastern part of the island known as Kannon’ura Bay. According to one story, these statues were built after a pretty grim incident when a group of people from Kozushima found themselves shipwrecked near Niijima and desperately swam to its shores to save their lives. However, the people on Niijima who found the shipwrecked folk were desperate enough to kill them rather than to take them in. Most likely, Niijima was struck by a famine and they either couldn’t afford to spare any food, or wished to hide the fact that they stole goods from the wrecked ship. When the news reached Kozushima, the locals built Jizo statues near the Kannon’ura Bay to mourn their death.

While the Kannon’ura Jizo statues are in a far too remote part of the island for us to recommend the trip, there is another collection of Jizo statues you can easily visit. A circle of 34 statues known as 34 Kannon’s Sacred Sites of Chichibu can be found on Mt. Chichibu in the southern part of the island. The name may sound a bit confusing—how exactly can one place be “34 Sacred Sites?” This name is a reference to an area in present-day Saitama Prefecture, also called Chichibu, where 34 temples dedicated to Kannon (the Japanese goddess of mercy identified with the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) are scattered across the city and neighboring villages. They were first established as places of pilgrimage in 1234, though the popularity of Kannon veneration soared during the Edo Period (1603 – 1868). While Buddhist pilgrimages were popular throughout Japanese history, they were quite difficult to undertake for poor peasants living in remote areas. They would require their lord’s permission to leave the domain and the travel would be very expensive and time-consuming. For that reason, “sister-sites” that symbolically represent the original pilgrimage route would be created to allow the local people to travel there and seek Kannon’s blessing. In fact, there are two other similar sites on Kozushima, both mirroring two other pilgrimages: the 33 Sacred Sites of Saigoku in Kansai region and the 33 Sacred Sites of Bando in Kanto region, which together with Chichibu are collectively known as “Japan 100 Kannon Pilgrimage.” Thus, Kozushima contains a whole microcosm of Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage culture.

Jizo statues are an intimate part of the island’s older residents’ lives. Even when outside their home island, they will sometimes make small offerings and say a quick prayer if they encounter a Jizo statue.

The Dosojin statues found along the roads and across the village are similar in appearance, but distinct from Jizo. The Dosojin figures are associated with Sarutahiko, a god from Japanese mythology who served as a guide for Ninigi-no-mikoto during his descent from the Heavens. As such, the Dosojin are considered protectors or travelers and pilgrims as well as guardians of villages.

Funerary Traditions

The main Buddhist temple on the island is Tohibiki Temple, which was first constructed in 1639 as a branch temple of the Pure Land Sect’s Kaizenji Temple in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The temple was originally standing near the present-day elementary school and was moved to its current location in 1804. The temple serves as the only cemetery for Kozushima’s inhabitants, who have deep respect for their dead. Each family must take care of their ancestral grave, and some of the more devout elderly citizens may visit their family’s graves even twice a day! The duty to take care of one’s ancestral grave is perceived as so important that the priests will not allow any single person to be buried in the cemetery if there’s no remaining family who can take care of their grave. Furthermore, there is no funeral house on the island—instead each family prepares their relative’s body for the burial, usually together with some elderly ladies in the community. The remains are cremated, which is very common in Japan, though interring the body used to be a normal practice on the island. In the past, a group of elderly women known as nenbutsu baba would chant a prayer to Buddha Amida, known as nenbutsu, during the ceremony. Unfortunately, this tradition will soon be lost as there is only one remaining person who still practices it.

While the Tohibiki Temple is the main cemetery used today, there are other burial grounds on the island, most notably the tiny Exiles’ Cemetery. Back in the days when people were banished to the Izu Archipelago, the exiles on Kozushima were not allowed to be buried together with the locals. Instead, their bodies were interred in a small patch of land situated near the modern-day post office.