THE PENINSULA
The village closest to the stars in Japan.
The Hirakubo Peninsula Community Council was formed by five community associations (kōminkan) — Hirano, Hirakubo, Kūra, Akaishi and Ibaruma. We work to pass on to the next generation the history, the culture and the rich natural environment, including the night sky, that those before us protected and passed down.
Protecting nature and living alongside it, and leaving behind a future in which the stars are still visible. As residents of this land, we propose ways of spending time here that are in step with the natural world.
mag/arcsec². Among the darkest skies anywhere — evidence that almost no artificial light reaches here.
Hirano, Hirakubo, Kūra, Akaishi and Ibaruma. Every community association on the peninsula belongs to the council.
Not one, yet. That does not mean there is nothing here. It means the choice is still open.
Businesses that have agreed to protect the value of this place together with the community.
What protects this peninsula is people, not a system.
Officers chosen by the five community associations meet on the first Wednesday of every month.
The ordinary, in five villages.
Not the scenery of a tourist destination, but daily life as it continues here: the village lanes, red-tiled roofs and shīsā guardians, households that keep goats, a village bus stop, a beach with nothing built on it, the east coast of the peninsula, the sky just after sunset, and the stars seen from the village. What is ordinary here cannot be found anywhere else.
The nature, culture and working life of this peninsula are set out as eleven stories in our Interpretation Master Plan (Japanese).