Kentoshi Sites in the Southern Goto Islands

Fukue Island in the Goto archipelago was the final staging point for many of the kentoshi, Japan's envoys to Tang China between the eighth and ninth centuries. Roughly half of those who departed never returned. The Mimiraku Peninsula on the island's northwest tip is the best-known departure site, and a highway rest stop near the main road holds a small museum with documents and poetry panels about the emissaries. At Shiraishi Bay, a mooring stone believed to have anchored kentoshi ships is now a local place of worship. The priest Kukai, founder of Shingon Buddhism, is thought to have passed through Fukue as part of the 804 mission to China and again on his return in 806.