The Oshima Peninsula (渡島半島 ''Oshima-hantō'') is the

south South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

ernmost part of

Hokkaidō is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

, the northernmost of 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 n ...

ese

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

s. Where the peninsula starts is open to interpretation. A more generous interpretation is to draw a line southeast from Ishikari Bay across the Ishikari Plain to

Yūfutsu District, Hokkaido is a district divided between Iburi and Kamikawa Subprefectures in Hokkaido, Japan. Towns and villages Iburi Subprefecture * Abira (merger of Hayakita and Oiwake) * Atsuma * Mukawa Kamikawa Subprefecture * Shimukappu History *1869 - With t ...

. A narrower interpretation is to draw a line connecting Suttsu on the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

and Oshamambe on Uchiura Bay. This narrow interpretation encompasses the subprefectures of Oshima and Hiyama. At its southern end it forks into the southwest-pointing Matsumae Peninsula and the southeast-pointing Kameda Peninsula. These two peninsulas face Tsugaru and

Shimokita Peninsula is the remote northeastern cape of the Japanese island of Honshū, stretching out towards Hokkaidō. Overview It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, Tsugaru Strait to the north and Mutsu Bay to the west and south. Shaped like an ax ...

s 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 sepa ...

across the Tsugaru Strait. The

Ōnuma Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park on the Oshima Peninsula in southwest Hokkaidō, Japan. The park encompasses the volcanic as well as the and ponds, which abut against the west slope of the mountain. The park, which was designated as quasi-national i ...

is located on the peninsula. The terrain of the peninsula is mountainous, with settlements mostly located in flat, lowland areas. Oshima Peninsula is home to several active

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

es such as Mount E and Hokkaido Koma-ga-take. The area also contains several

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

hot springs. The peninsula is home to two cities:

Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.8 ...

and the smaller adjacent Hokuto, as well as numerous small fishing and agricultural towns. Matsumae Castle, the northernmost castle in Japan and only castle on the island of Hokkaido, is located on the Oshima peninsula. The climate is humid continental (''Dfa''/''Dfb'') except along the coast of the Matsumae Peninsula where it is oceanic (''Cfb'',) The

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

is high for an east-coast Northern Hemisphere location at such a latitude and ranges up to 8b on the Matsumae

References

Peninsulas of Japan Landforms of Hokkaido {{Hokkaido-geo-stub