is an artificial island, the oldest in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, now in ruins. The name means "Waka Bay Island" from Waka, Zaimokuza's old name (see the text of the commemorative stele, below). Its remains are located at the east end of Zaimokuza

Zaimokuza

is an area within the Kamakura, Kanagawa Pref., in Japan that runs along the sea from Cape Iijima near Kotsubo harbor to the estuary of the Namerigawa. The relation between the beach's name and that of its neighboring areas is complex...

 Beach near Kamakura

Kamakura, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...

 and are still visible at low tide. It was built in 1232 and, in spite of its state of disrepair, it has been declared a national Historic Site because it's the sole surviving example of artificial harbor of the Kamakura Period

Kamakura period

The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....

.

Although the stones it's made of have sunk in the sand, its general contour is still clearly visible when the tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

 is low as a mound about 200m long. On its northern side there used to be several stone pillars used to moor ships in port call to avoid strong southern winds, but they are now all lost.

On the beach, a large rock surmounted by a black stele marks the position of the former port. The stele, erected by the Kamakuramachi Seinendan (Kamakura Youth Club) in 1924, explains in Japanese the history of the site and its importance.

History

During the Kamakura Shogunate

Kamakura shogunate

The Kamakura shogunate was a military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura. The Kamakura period draws its name from the capital of the shogunate...

 Sagami Bay

Sagami Bay

Sagami Bay , also known as the Sagami Gulf or Sagami Sea, lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshū, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the...

 was busy with trading ships, but the shallowness of the bay made indispensable the use of barges. Also, accidents between ships were common and it was therefore decided to build a port. A priest named applied for permission from the Shogunate to build an artificial port in the area, permission granted in 1232.

In its first form, the harbor functioned as both a breakwater and a wharf and was built with large stones laid as a foundation, with smaller stones on top. It was later extended gradually and repaired several times until the end of the Edo Period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, when it was abandoned.

The text on the stele

The original inscription is in old-fashioned Japanese. Here follows a translation of the text based on the transcription in modern Japanese provided by the Kamakura Citizen Net http://www.kcn-net.org/sisekihi/wagae.htm.

"Waka" is the former name of today's Zaimokuza. This place used to be a harbor where timber was collected and shipped and, for this reason, the town's name changed soon to the present one.

Wakae Island was an embankment built to avoid the destruction by the waves of Waka's harbor. 768 years ago, a priest named Oamidabutsu asked permission for its building and, with the support of Moritsuna, work was started on July 15th and ended on August 9th.

Erected in March 1924 - The Kamakura Youth Club

External links

• About WakaeJima Photos of Wakae Island's full profile in occasion of an exceptionally low tide (site in Japanese) accessed on April 4, 2008
• Wakaejima Original text and its transcription with photo of Wakae Island's commemorative stele (site in Japanese) accessed on April 4, 2008