is a peninsula on the east coast of Hokkaidō, Japan, with its northwestern base in Shibetsu and southeast tip in

Betsukai is a town located in Nemuro Subprefecture, Hokkaido, 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 S ...

. The name is derived from the Ainu for jawbone, ''notkeu'' (ノッケウ), purportedly due to the landform's visual resemblance to that of a whale. The curved peninsula, the longest sandspit in the country, with a length of some to , extends into the

Nemuro Strait Nemuro Strait, also called Notsuke Strait and Kunashirsky Strait (russian: Кунаширский пролив), is a strait, located at , separating Kunashir Island of the Kuril Islands, Russia ( claimed by Japan) from the Shiretoko Peninsula, Hok ...

, which lies between Shiretoko Peninsula,

Nemuro Peninsula The Nemuro Peninsula (根室半島 ''Nemuro-hantō'') is a peninsula which extends from the east coast of Hokkaidō, Japan. It is some long and wide, and forms part of Nemuro City. Cape Nosappu at its tip is the easternmost point of Hokkaidō. ...

, and the disputed island of

Kunashiri , other_names = kz, Kün Ashyr; ja, 国後島 , location = Sea of Okhotsk , locator_map = File:Kurily Kunashir.svg , coordinates = , archipelago = Kuril Islands , total_islands = , major_islands = , area = , length = , width = fr ...

in the Sea of Okhotsk; it was formed by the deposition of sand

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

carried by the currents in the strait, and itself forms and largely encloses

Notsuke Bay is a shallow bay in eastern Hokkaido, Japan, separated from Nemuro Bay and the Sea of Okhotsk by the curving Notsuke Peninsula. The bay mouth has a width of some and a maximum depth of ; most of the area of the bay has a depth of less than , m ...

. There remain on the peninsula traces of

Satsumon culture The is a partially agricultural, archeological culture of northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido (700–1200 CE) that has been identified as Emishi, as a Japanese-Emishi mixed culture, as the incipient modern Ainu, or with all three synonymously. ...

pit dwellings, while during the

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 characte ...

samurai were stationed at a checkpoint controlling the crossing to Kunashiri. It is said that from the Edo period to the beginning of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

there was a settlement known as at the tip of the peninsula, with streets lined with samurai residences and even pleasure quarters, but this is not shown on contemporary maps and is poorly attested in the literature. Prominent features today include withered and eroded stretches of

Sakhalin fir ''Abies sachalinensis'', the Sakhalin fir, is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae. It is found in Sakhalin island and southern Kurils (Russia), and also in northern Hokkaido ( Japan). The first discovery by a European was by Carl Fri ...

(''Abies sachalinensis'') at and

Mongolian oak ''Quercus mongolica'', commonly known as Mongolian oak, is a species of oak native to Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, and Siberia. The species can grow to be tall. The flavono-ellagitannin The Flavono-ellagitannins or complex tannins are a cla ...

(''Quercus crispula'') at , while to be found in the Notsuke Peninsula Primeval Flower Garden near Notsukezaki Lighthouse towards the eastern tip are the Kamchatka lily,

Japanese iris The term "Japanese iris" encompasses three species of Irises cultivated in gardens or growing wild in Japan: ''hanashōbu'' ('' Iris ensata''), ''kakitsubata'' ('' Iris laevigata'') and ''ayame'' ('' Iris sanguinea''). Of these three species, ''I ...

, sea pea, ''

Rosa rugosa ''Rosa rugosa'' (rugosa rose, beach rose, Japanese rose, Ramanas rose, or letchberry) is a species of rose native to eastern Asia, in northeastern China, Japan, Korea and southeastern Siberia, where it grows on beach coasts, often on sand dunes. ...

'', '' Eriophorum vaginatum'', and . The c. stretch of from the base of the peninsula to the nature centre is commonly known as the . Together with Notsuke Bay, Notsuke Peninsula has been designated a Ramsar Site, a Special Wildlife Protection Area, and an Important Bird Area, and forms part of

Notsuke-Fūren Prefectural Natural Park is a Prefectural Natural Park in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. Established in 1962, the park spans the municipalities of Betsukai, Nemuro, and Shibetsu. The park comprises two principal areas, the and Lake Furen. See also * National Parks of J ...

References

{{Authority control Peninsulas of Japan Landforms of Hokkaido Betsukai, Hokkaido Shibetsu, Hokkaido (town) Ramsar sites in Japan