Standing 324.5 meters high, Mount Akahage is the tallest mountain on Chiburi and is home to an unobstructed 360° panoramic view of the whole island.

And it doesn’t end with Chiburi. You can look out at the islands of Nishinoshima, Nakanoshima, and all the way as far as Dōgo as well. In other words, you can view all four of the islands of the Oki Archipelago from this one summit.

The three islands of Chiburi, Nishinoshima and Nakanoshima are collectively referred to as Dōzen, and these three islands were originally one island. On Nishinoshima, there is a volcano called Mt. Takuhi, which at one point erupted so many times that it hollowed out, collapsed into itself, and finally sank into itself. The water from the surrounding ocean then flowed in creating the Dōzen Caldera that we see today. There are other caldera in Japan; some, like Aso in Kyūshū, come to house villages, whereas others, like Lake Tōya in Hokkaidō, become a caldera lake. It is rare for an island to break up as in the case of the Oki Archipelago.


Take a look at the map and try comparing Dōgo and Dōzen. You can imagine that before those eruptions that split Dōzen into three islands, it too was a large round island like Dōgo.

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