is a

cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, in

Chōshi is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,174 in 27,160 households and a population density of 700 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Chōshi is located in the northeas ...

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The cape is near the midpoint of the

Japanese Archipelago The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a archipelago, group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to t ...

on the island of

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

Origin of name

The name of the cape is constructed from two Chinese characters, the first (犬) meaning "dog", and the second (吠) meaning "howling". Various traditions exist as to the origin of the name, one being that when

Minamoto no Yoshitsune was a military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles which toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-brother Yoritomo conso ...

's pet dog Wakamaru was left behind on the peninsula, he howled for seven days and nights. Another explanation is that the region was home to numerous

Japanese sea lion The Japanese sea lion (''Zalophus japonicus'') ( ja, ニホンアシカ, translit=Nihon ashika, Korean:강치, 바다사자) was an aquatic mammal that became extinct in the 1970s. It was considered to be a subspecies of the related California se ...

s, whose barking voice resembles that of a dog. The name may also be of ancient Ainu origin.

Geography

Cape Inubō is technically a small

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

, but is customarily referred to as a cape. While references exist to the Inubō Peninsula, the name has fallen out of use. An extensive marine cave exists in the reef areas under the lighthouse. The cape forms the easternmost point in Chiba Prefecture, close to the mouth of the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...

. It is part of Suigo-Tsukuba Quasi-National Park.

Inubōsaki Lighthouse

Cape Inubō is noted for its

Inubōsaki Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Cape Inubō, in the city of Chōshi, Chiba Prefecture Japan. It is notable as one of the few lighthouses whose original lens was a first order Fresnel lens, the strongest type of Fresnel lens. It is a Registered Tangible ...

, built in 1874. It is notable as one of the few lighthouses whose original lens was a first order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

, the strongest type of Fresnel lens. It is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan.

In popular culture

Cape Inubō is mentioned in numerous literary works. Markers related to the poems of

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

author

Kyoshi Takahama was a Japanese poet active during the Shōwa period of Japan. His real name was ; Kyoshi was a pen name given to him by his mentor, Masaoka Shiki. Early life Kyoshi was born in what is now the city of Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture; his father, Ike ...

(1874 – 1959) and ''Naturalist''

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

poet

Bokusui Wakayama was the pen-name of , a Japanese author noted for his poetry in pre-World War II Japan. Life Wakayama was born in Togo, Miyazaki, (now part of the city of Hyūga) as the eldest son of a doctor. He became interested in poetry from middle school ...

(1885 – 1928) are on the cape. The opening logo for

Toei Company () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by i ...

films features waves crashing over three rocks near Cape Inubō. As a homage to this, the 45th ''

Super Sentai is a Japanese superhero team metaseries and media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company, and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or "fighting squadron"). The sho ...

'' series, ''

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger is a Japanese ''tokusatsu'' television drama, the 45th entry in Toei's long-running ''Super Sentai'' series, and the second produced in the Reiwa era. Additionally, it commemorates the 45th anniversary of the ''Super Sentai'' franchise and is th ...

'', features this particular shot of Cape Inubō in the background whenever Zenkaiser uses the Zenryoku Zenkai Cannon's main attack.

Transport

The cape is 10 minutes by foot from the

Inuboh Station is a railway station on the privately operated Chōshi Electric Railway Line in Chōshi, Chiba, Japan. Lines Inuboh Station is served by the Chōshi Electric Railway Line from to . It is located between and Tokawa stations, and is a dist ...

of the Chōshi Electric Railway Line, or 20 minutes by bus from the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Chōshi Station is an interchange passenger railway station in the city of Chōshi, Chiba, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and also used by the private railway operator Choshi Electric Railway. Lines Chōshi Station is the easte ...

. File:Inubozaki lighthouse 002.jpg, Inubōsaki Lighthouse File:Inubouzki_lighthouse_2008.jpg, Inubōsaki Lighthouse

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cape Inubo Inubo Tourist attractions in Chiba Prefecture Landforms of Chiba Prefecture Chōshi