World Heritage Identification Number: 1535
World Heritage since: 2017
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇯🇵 Japan
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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Exploring the Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region
The Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region, located approximately 60 kilometers off the western coast of Kyushu island, Japan, is an extraordinary testament to the ancient tradition of worshipping a sacred island. This site, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017, offers a unique glimpse into the evolution of religious practices spanning the 4th to the 9th centuries AD.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Located 60 km off the western coast of Kyushu island, the island of Okinoshima is an exceptional example of the tradition of worship of a sacred island. The archaeological sites that have been preserved on the island are virtually intact, and provide a chronological record of how the rituals performed there changed from the 4th to the 9th centuries AD. In these rituals, votive objects were deposited as offerings at different sites on the island. Many of them are of exquisite workmanship and had been brought from overseas, providing evidence of intense exchanges between the Japanese archipelago, the Korean Peninsula and the Asian continent. Integrated within the Grand Shrine of Munakata, the island of Okinoshima is considered sacred to this day.
Encyclopedia Record: Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region
Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region (「神宿る島」宗像・沖ノ島と関連遺産群), officially Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region, is a group of sites in northwest Kyūshū, Japan, that was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017, under criteria ii and iii.Additional Site Details
Area: 98.93 hectares
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
Coordinates: 34.245 , 130.1055555556
Image
© Jerry fish tkc, CC BY-SA 3.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
