is an active

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 in

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 ...

Bungo Channel The is a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. It connects the Pacific Ocean and the Seto Inland Sea on the western end of Shikoku. The narrowest part of this channel is the Hōyo Strait. In the English-speaking world, t ...

Specifications

The structure is located on Mizunokojima, a small rocky island roughly east-northeast of the city of Saiki, in the middle of the

. The light itself is above sea level, while the building is off the ground; the height of the island makes up the difference. It is one of Japan's tallest lighthouses. The tower is painted in alternating black and white horizontal stripes. The light flashes once every ten seconds and emits 1,200,000 candela. The white two-story keeper's house is located directly next to the light.

History

The Mizunokojima Lighthouse began operating on 20 March 1904, after a torturous four-year construction marked by difficulties brought on by the remoteness of the location. The location had to be abandoned on 4 May 1945 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

due to Allied strafing and bombs, but service was restored with

acetylene Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

gas lamps by 17 May 1946. On 15 November 1950, the normal light was finally repaired. The lighthouse was manned until 1986, when it transitioned to automatic control. Solar and wave power generators were installed in 2002. Several

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 ...

s have hit the lighthouse in its years of operation, and the resulting high waves have caused damage. Keepers' records show that waves taller than the roof of the lighthouse hit on 22 September 1922. Another typhoon on 1 October 1941 created waves that reached up to the seventh floor of the lighthouse, rendering equipment like meteorological instruments, radio equipment, generators, and batteries unusable, and the storm destroyed the adjoining pier.

References

{{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1904 Lighthouses in Japan 1904 establishments in Japan

Specifications

History

See also

References