Taketomi Island, Taketomi

Taketomi Island is a preservation district for an island farming village on a small island in Yaeyama District, Okinawa Prefecture, covering about 38.3 hectares. It consists of three settlements in the center of the island, where houses with red-tile roofs, built as separate detached buildings, stand within compounds enclosed by white-sand roads, stone walls called guku, and house forests. It was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1987. The island receives over 400,000 visitors a year, and water-buffalo cart tours go around the settlement.

Knowing how a compound is organized makes it easier to picture what lies behind the stone walls. Each compound is enclosed by a wall (guku) of coral-reef stones, and the main house, the fuya, which serves as both living room and bedroom, stands at the center of the plot. To its west is the tora, where cooking is done. The buildings are single-story wooden structures in the nuki style. Their hip roofs are either red Ryukyu tile finished with plaster or thatch, the outer walls use wooden boards and wooden shutters, and the eaves are low and deep.

The town names the Former Yonaguni Residence, an Important Cultural Property, as the traditional house that symbolizes the island. It was designated in 2007, and a conservation and utilization plan was drawn up in fiscal 2017. The town aims to use the house not only to convey the form of the traditional house but also as a place for residents to meet and learn, and as a tourist resource. The island also has the Tanedori festival, a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, and the West Pier, a registered tangible cultural property.

The townscape is held together by the residents' own rules. In 1986 the Taketomi community center adopted the Taketomi Island Charter, whose basic principles are five: do not sell, do not soil, do not disturb, do not destroy, and make use. The town's preservation ordinance was enacted the same year, and national selection followed the next year. In 2015 the general meeting resolved never to accept resort development again. The Townscape Coordination Committee meets once a month and discusses each application for alteration one by one.

The challenges are stated plainly. The island has no mountains, and building materials were traditionally brought from Iriomote Island, but logging is now prohibited in Iriomote's mountains, so traditional timber is hard to obtain. Repairs use salvaged timber from old houses demolished on Ishigaki Island. Few carpenters can build a traditional house, so handing down the skills is an issue. Nearly 80 percent of the 109 preserved properties have finished repairs. Because residents sweep the white-sand roads every morning, keep in mind as you walk that this is where they live.