A little of each town’s story

Sanagi Island

From: Drawn by the sea breeze and the cats to Sanagi Island

Cats gathering in front of the Motoura waiting room

One of the Shiwaku Islands, off the coast of Tadotsu. A long, narrow island of 1.83 square kilometers with two villages, Motoura in the south and Nagasaki in the north, and a population of just under 60 as of 2021. Ferries from Tadotsu port call at Takamijima on the way to Motoura and Nagasaki. It is known as a "cat island," home to more community cats than residents, and photos of cats leaping across gaps in the breakwater made it famous. The island's school closed in 1995, and in 2017 the schoolhouse became a guesthouse and café. In the last years of the Edo period, islanders crewed the Kanrin Maru on its voyage across the Pacific. The town asks visitors to explore only between sunrise and sunset and to stay out of the villages.

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org haveagood-holiday.com town.tadotsu.kagawa.jp

This moment in the journey

To Sanagi, the cat island

From Shishijima, with its great camphor tree and its flower garden in the sky, the ferry took me to Sanagi Island, a small island belonging to the town of Tadotsu in Kagawa Prefecture. The ferry, white with a red stripe, slid into the harbor against the green of the island.

This is a "cat island," where the cats are said to outnumber the people. A tabby lay stretched out on the quay, and in front of the little waiting room at Motoura harbor, cat after cat came over to me. When I crouched down, they walked right up to my feet.

A cat followed me down the lane, and on a tiled roof a black-and-white cat dozed with its eyes closed. Their complete lack of wariness toward people loosened something in me.

Watch this scene on YouTube0:10

Read this scene in the full journey