Sado Island

Around 30 miles off the coast of Niigata prefecture sits an island that was designated for exiles in the medieval period. Full of a community of artists and intellectuals, coupled with its position along trading routes, it has today become a site of creative and cultural flourishing. Set along cliffs and in the shadow of Mount Kinpoku, the seaside villages of Sado Island offer quiet nature, lovingly preserved culture, and some of Japan’s freshest seafood.

‍

Theater, ceramics, drumming, sake making, and many other arts are proudly cultivated here. One of those long-ago exiles was Zeami Motokiyo, a master of Noh, the classical Japanese form of dance-drama, who arrived on the island in 1434. Today, Sado Island is home to a third of the Noh theaters in Japan, which means that each week sees at least one performance. Also, during a mining boom in Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868), workers digging around the Aikawa Gold Mine found deposits of red clay that are still used today to make Mumyoi Yaki, a style of pottery with a burnished, unglazed red exterior. In Kaizuka, 84-year-old Watanabe Tozo uses traditional methods of processing the local clay, firing his pieces in a 130-year-old kiln. And during August’s three-day Earth celebration—one of the island’s many annual festivals—the local taiko drumming group, Kodo, performs in the streets. Sake brewers here take their craft just as seriously. Classical music can be heard on the wind surrounding the Hokusetsu Shuzo brewery in the town of Tokuwa, where the owners are convinced that storing their bottles in rooms where classical music plays improves the sake’s final flavor.