Too Blue Sea, Wooden Grave Tablets and Stacked Stones Have Dreadful Atomosphere -Sainokawara Park in Okushiri Island-

Sainokawara Park (河原公園) is located on the northmost of Okushiri Island (奥尻島) and the whole area of Cape Inaho (稲穂岬) was maintained as Sainokawa Park. Stones piled up for mourning over marine accident victims, drowned people and deceased children on 6 ha of a rocky seashore, so this place seemed to be named "Sainokawara (賽の河原)" by its view. By the way, the Sainokawara is a riverbank of the Sanzu-no-kawa River (三途の川) between this world. It is said that deceased children before their parents die heap up the stones for praying for the happiness of the parents and complete it and their wishes are realized. Therefore the deceased children are busily heaping up the stones, but an oni in the hell break their stacked stones, so their wishes can not be realized. This is a sad tradition. Fortunately, do not worry because there is not the oni at this park. But the oni seemed to appear only when the tsunami came. There are a camping ground, a baseball ground, an observatory deck and a restraunt at a site. Admission free . A parking lot is free of charge.

Many people have never dead at this place. But Nobuhiro Takeda (武田信広), ancestor of Matsumae clan (松前藩), knew about this place 500 years ago and seemed to held a memorial service, so this place would be considerably known from old days and is designed as 5 major sacred places in South Hokkaido. The too blue sea and wooden grave tablets have very dreadful atmosphere.

Atmosphere of Sainokawara Park Can Be Watched on Youtube

Movie of Sainokawara Park

A page of Okushiri is here