• A long, long time ago, some residents of Kishiku Village went to an uninhabited island off the coast of Miiraku to pick an edible plant called “tsuwabuki,” but they were caught in a storm and returned to the village by boat. However, a woman named “Hime” was left behind on the island and lost her life there. Her name was given to the uninhabited island, and it has since been called “Himeshima Island.”
• It is said that after the migration of Hidden Christians from Sotome to Himeshima in 1797, people started to settle on the island.
• In the Meiji Era, Himeshima Island had a population of over 300 people, and Himeshima Church was constructed. (It no longer exists today.) Due to changes in society, Himeshima became uninhabited again in 1965.
• The residents of Himeshima were so deeply religious that they moved their ancestors’ graves to the cemetery of Miiraku Church on Fukuejima Island in 1987 and erected a stone monument as the “basis of Himeshima’s deep faith in Christianity.”