Tsuken-jima

Tsuken lies about 5 km south-east of the Katsuren peninsula, off the mouth of Nakagusuku Bay. The island is low and ringed by reef, and its soil suits root vegetables so well that about a fifth of Okinawa's carrots come from here. Before the war Tsuken was known for its daikon. A carrot-shaped observation tower near Tumai beach looks over the fields and across to the main island.

The village sits around the fishing port on the south side, and the beaches spread around the rest of the shore. Tumai beach has about 800 m of white sand on the west coast and sits about ten minutes on foot from the port. Yajiri beach on the north side faces the small rock of Afu. Tradition says the cave of Shinugu Gama, which opens onto a sandy beach, is where Akainko was born, and Okinawans remember him as the first maker of the sanshin. The spring at Hotugaa got its name from a dove that led villagers to water in a drought.

The Battle of Okinawa reached Tsuken in 1945, and islanders were moved to Haebaru on the main island and could not return until 1949. Okinawa's first lighthouse went up here in 1896, and its brick base survived the war on the southern cliffs, where the view runs south to Kudaka. About 2 km of the west coast remains a US military training area.