Sefa-utaki

Sefa-utaki (斎場御嶽, Okinawan: シェーファウタキ Seefa-utaki[1]), meaning "purified place of Utaki,"[2] is a historical sacred space, overlooking Kudaka Island, that served as one of the key locations of worship in the native religion of the Ryukyuan people for millennia.

[3] Later as a part of assimilation of Okinawa by Japan, it was shifted to serve as a Shinto shrine.

Sefa Utaki is on the Chinen Peninsula, and has been recognized as a sacred place since the earliest period of Ryukyuan history.

According to Chūzan Seikan, this was the spot where Amamikyu, goddess of creation, made landfall on Okinawa.

The shrine area itself comprises a number of caves and overhanging ledges opening to the east and south among towering rock formations of a high promontory over the sea.

Sefa-utaki
View of Kudaka Island from Sefa-utaki