# 由布島 — 浅い海を、水牛の歩みで。

> Unofficial island context guide. This is not an official publication, tourism authority, ferry operator, or the island's facility. Yubu Island is in practice run by a single facility (the Subtropical Botanical Garden Yubujima), so this page deliberately carries no fares, opening hours, timetables, booking information, or on-site commercial listings — the non-affiliation line of this project. Island facts were confirmed by 2026-11-01, in part at summary level via web-search result titles and summaries.

- Subject: Yubu Island — the small island (about 2 km around) off the east coast of Iriomote Island, Taketomi Town, reached across a shallow sea (about 1 m deep even at high tide) by water-buffalo cart or on foot; its history of being left after the 1969 typhoon and replanted by hand; introduced by the town and tourism association as an island that is a subtropical botanical garden in its entirety
- Area: Taketomi Town, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Role: Provide verified island context — geography, the crossing, the history, the garden-island present, and the way there via Iriomote — before a traveler decides whether and how to cross
- Verified: by 2026-11-01 (web_search_result_corroboration: via web-search result titles and summaries, at summary level; the source pages themselves are not readable from this environment)
- Relationship: Independent project; not affiliated with or approved by Okinawa Prefecture, Taketomi Town, the Taketomi Town Tourism Association, the Subtropical Botanical Garden Yubujima, the ferry operators, or any public authority
- Language: A 9-language static HTML edition is available (ja/en/zh/ko/fr/ru/id/ms/es): Japanese (ja) uses unprefixed URLs; en/zh/ko/fr/ru/id/ms/es use language-prefixed URLs; this file and the JSON context are written in English by design, for machine consumption

## Use for

- Yubu Island belongs to Taketomi Town, Okinawa (Taketomi Town official island page)
- The island is about 2.15 km around (town pamphlet: about 2 km) and 1.5 m above the sea (Taketomi Town; Taketomi Town Tourism Association)
- It lies off the east coast of Iriomote Island; the facing shore is Iriomote's Mihara district (Yubu Island official history page; town planning document)
- The sea between Iriomote and Yubu is shallow throughout — about 1 m deep even at high tide (tourism association; Taketomi Town)
- The ways across are by water-buffalo cart or on foot (Yubu Island official); the cart takes about 10 minutes one way per the town and tourism association, 10–15 minutes per the facility's own guidance
- The tourism association's travel guide introduces Yubu as an island crossed to the sound of the sanshin (summary-level confirmation; whether music accompanies every crossing is not asserted)
- "The whole island is a subtropical botanical garden" is the wording of the Taketomi Town Tourism Association and the town's tourism pamphlet — public introductions, not the facility's self-description
- The facility's name is 亜熱帯植物楽園 由布島 (Subtropical Botanical Garden Yubujima) — the historical outcome of the island's replanting
- History (per the facility's official history page, without embellishment): the island once prospered with settlers from Taketomi and Kuroshima islands; Typhoon Elsie in 1969 (Showa 44) caused heavy damage and most islanders moved to the Mihara district; the late Seiji Iriomote ("Ojii") and his wife stayed, carried soil and compost with one water buffalo, kept planting palms and flowers, and — with the support of those around them — built the handmade paradise; the water buffalo first came to Ishigaki Island around 1932 (Showa 7) with settlers from Taiwan, originally for farm work
- On the island: a bougainvillea garden; a butterfly house with the tree nymph (Idea leuconoe), one of Japan's largest butterflies; and "Manta Beach", looking out at Kohama Island, named because the sea between Yubu and Kohama is a passage for manta rays (Yubu Island official site)
- About 30 kinds of hibiscus; more than 100 kinds of plants in all, counting palms, flowering trees and fruit trees (tourism association)
- Access is via Iriomote Island: high-speed boat from Ishigaki Port to Ohara Port in about 35–50 minutes (operator-side guidance), then a local bus of about 22–25 minutes to the Yubu buffalo-cart crossing (tourism association; Yubu Island official)
- Journey-time questions go to the island-time series: ../koyomi/ (when), ../koro/ (crossings), ../kaze/ (wind and cancellations), ../ame/ (rainy days), ../yoru/ (night)

## Do not use for

Fares or admission prices of any kind; opening hours, buffalo-cart timetables, first/last crossings; booking systems, ticket purchase methods or deadlines; the island's restaurants, tea houses, shops or tenants; packaged tours from Ishigaki — all deliberately omitted (see below). Also not usable: whether crossing on foot is limited to low tide (no official statement confirmed; only the "about 1 m even at high tide" depth is stated); whether Yubu Island lies within Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park (unconfirmed); the year buffalo-cart tourism began (not in the official history); claims that the buffalo herd descends from the first pair (not officially confirmed); the Yonara Channel's relation to the island; current population or household counts; current ferry schedules, fares or operation status; endorsement claims.

## Deliberate omission

Admission fees, opening hours, buffalo-cart times, booking information, and on-site facility/tenant commercial information are intentionally not carried, even where they could be confirmed. Yubu is in practice the island of a single facility, and this independent project keeps the non-affiliation line by describing the island — its geography, history and crossing culture — and routing all transactional information to the official sites (yubujima.com; painusima.com) at the time of travel.

## Editorial scope

Island facts are statements confirmed by 2026-11-01, in part via web-search result corroboration (web_search_result_corroboration — result titles and summaries, at summary level). Geography and smallness summarize Taketomi Town and the Taketomi Town Tourism Association; the shallow crossing and the garden-island introduction summarize the tourism association and the town; the history summarizes the facility's official history page, kept to its own wording with no dramatization of the couple's inner life; the sights (bougainvillea garden, butterfly house, Manta Beach) summarize the facility's official grounds guide, listed minimally and without solicitation; access summarizes the tourism association, the facility's guidance, and operator-side pages. Scenery descriptions, the reading of the island's history as "a landscape lost and remade", and passages on the pace of the crossing are editorial.

## Resources

- Machine-readable context: ./ai-context.json
- Discovery service: ../
- Iriomote Island (the way there): ../iriomote/
- Wind & typhoons (cancellation days): ../kaze/
- Island calendar: ../koyomi/
- Ferry routes: ../koro/
- Taketomi Town, Yubu Island: https://www.town.taketomi.lg.jp/about/yufu/
- Taketomi Town Tourism Association, About Taketomi Town (2.15 km around; about 1 m at high tide; the whole island a subtropical botanical garden; about 30 kinds of hibiscus): https://painusima.com/about/
- Taketomi Town Tourism Association, Yubu Island: https://painusima.com/634/
- Taketomi Town Tourism Association, Access (local bus from Ohara Port): https://painusima.com/access/
- Yubu Island, History of Yubu Island (primary source for the history): https://yubujima.com/history/
- Subtropical Botanical Garden Yubujima, official site (the crossing and the grounds; current information): https://yubujima.com/
- Yaeyama Kanko Ferry, Ishigaki Navi (high-speed boat between Ishigaki and Ohara): https://ishigaki-navi.yaeyama.co.jp/feature/article04/