is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

located on the island of

Kii Ōshima is an inhabited island lying off the southern tip of the Kii Peninsula and the southernmost point of Honshū, Japan. It has an estimated population of around 2000, and is administratively part of the town of Kushimoto in Wakayama Prefecture. The i ...

, off the southwestern coast of

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. Overview The area south of the “ Central Tectonic Line” is called , and is home to reef-like coral communities which are amongst ...

in the

Kansai region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

of Japan. Administratively, the island is part of the town of

Kushimoto 270px, Shionomisaki Southernmost Point Park is a coastal town located in Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,192 in 8354 households and a population density of 110 persons per km2. The ...

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

History

On June 25, 1866, the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japan signed a customs and tax treaty with the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands to normalize trade relations, One of the stipulations of this treaty was that eight lighthouses be erected near the approaches to the

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

s opened for foreign commerce.(Kannonzaki, Nojimasaki, Kashinosaki, Mikomotojima, Kusaki, Iojima, Cape Sata, and Shionomisaki). However, due to the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

, work was not begun until after the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. The new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

brought in foreign advisors to assist in the modernization efforts, one of whom was the British engineer

Richard Henry Brunton Richard Henry Brunton FRGS MICE (26 December 1841 – 24 April 1901) was the so-called " Father of Japanese lighthouses". Brunton was born in Muchalls, Kincardineshire, Scotland. He was employed by the government of Meiji period Japan as a f ...

who specialized in lighthouse design. Aside from the eight lighthouses stipulated by the treaty (i.e. the "treaty lighthouses"), Brunton went on to constructed another 25 lighthouses from far northern

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

to southern

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

during his career in Japan. Work on the Kashinosaki Lighthouse began in April 1869, and it was first lit on July 8, 1870, making it the first stone lighthouse in Japan. However, despite this lighthouse, on the night of September 16, 1890, the Ottoman Navy frigate ''Ertuğrul'' sank in a

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

east of Kashinosaki. Ten of the survivors climbed the cliff below the lighthouse to safety. The lighthouse was reconstructed in 1954. On April 12, 2002, the lighthouse as opened to the public, with an observation deck at a height of 6.5 meters accessible by a spiral staircase constructed. The lighthouse's optical system was certified as a Mechanical Engineering Heritage site in July 2016., and the lighthouse structure itself as a Civil Engineering Heritage site in 2017. It was designated a National Historic Site in 2021. The lighthouse is within the borders of the

Yoshino-Kumano National Park is a national park comprising several non-contiguous areas of Mie, Nara, and Wakayama Prefectures, Japan. Established in 1936, the park includes Mount Yoshino, celebrated for its cherry blossoms, as well as elements of the UNESCO World Heritag ...

. The lighthouse is now operated by the

Japan Coast Guard The is the coast guard of Japan. The Japan Coast Guard consists of about 13,700 personnel and is responsible for the protection of the coastline of Japan under the oversight of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Th ...

5th Regional Headquarters

Gallery

Kasinosaki-Lighthouse kansya.JPG, Lightkeepers house Kasinosaki-Lighthouse zenkei.JPG, Panoramic view

External links

Kushimoto Tourist InformationWakayama Prefecture official tourist information site

Notes

Lighthouses completed in 1870 Lighthouses in Japan Buildings and structures in Wakayama Prefecture Kushimoto, Wakayama Historic Sites of Japan {{lighthouse-stub

History

Gallery

See also

External links

Notes