Merged with surf and jungle, Okinawa’s holiest sites survive

Sefa Utaki is without doubt one of the most sacred websites in Okinawa Prefecture’s indigenous faith. Nevertheless it isn’t grand — not less than not in the best way you often anticipate from non secular websites.

Apart from a connecting path of rough-hewn stone and brief stone plinths for rituals, Sefa Utaki’s six ibi (holy locations for rituals) stay largely as nature made them. Large limestone boulders tower and tilt at odd angles, striated by the ropy roots of gajumaru (banyan) bushes perched on high. Stalactites drip from overhangs, steadily marking the sluggish passage of time whereas lush jungle foliage greedily creeps over every part in and across the utaki (sacred website).