Wisdom of the Islanders: Making Use of the Climate

Natural and Cultural Landscape Formed by Volcanic Islands

The people of the Oki Islands have lived alongside the land created by volcanic activity and garnered the skills required to utilize it in their way of life. In order to survive on steep and barren land with few flat areas, the people devised a unique four-field farming system called Makihata, and to provide a safe method of transportation between villages, dug tunnels in a cliff made by pyroclastic flow six million years ago. From terraced rice paddies to the location of the islands’ airport, you can see the people’s wise ways of working with the land.