Tashirojima Cat Island, Japan
Tashirojima is a small, rural island off the coast of central Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture. Informally known as “Cat Island”, Tashirojima is inhabited by several hundred felines, which are cared for and worshiped by the island’s human residents. The cats were originally brought over to help with pest control around the island’s silkworm farms, and since then their numbers have increased to the point that they now outnumber the island’s aging human population by almost four to one.
Cat lovers from all around come to visit Tashirojima, which requires taking a one hour long ferry ride from central Ishinomaki. The boats stop at both of the island’s settled areas: a tiny village around Odomari Port in the north and a larger, more developed village around Nitoda Port in the south. Several narrow roads and walking trails crisscross the forested island’s interior between the two villages.
Tashirojima was affected by the 2011 tsunami which partially flooded both villages and destroyed several buildings around the port towns which were close to the coast. Luckily the island’s location behind a peninsula helped protect it from more severe damage, and the majority of the debris was cleared within a year.
Epic Japan Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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