is a sandy beach that occupies much of the northeast coast of the Bōsō Peninsula in

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 t ...

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 ...

. The beach is approximately long, making it the second longest beach in Japan. Kujūkuri Beach is a popular

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable ...

destination for inhabitants of Greater Tokyo. The beach is protected as part of Kujūkuri Prefectural Natural Park.

Geography

Kujūkuri Beach extends in the shape of an arc from Cape Gyōbumi in Asahi to the north to Cape Taitō in Isumi,

to the south. The beach is relatively straight, in contrast to the typically irregular coastlines of Japan. The coastal region of the beach is the north-eastern end of

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

influence in Japan. The tides and the

create sand deposits along the length of the beach which form

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

s of to . Kujūkuri Beach has no reef.

Municipalities

Kujūkuri Beach extends across ten municipalities in Chiba Prefecture. They include: * Asahi * Sōsa * Yokoshibahikari * Sanmu * Kujūkuri * Ōamishirasato *

Shirako 260px, Shirako town hall is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 11,040 in 4942 households and a population density of 400 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Shirak ...

* Chōsei *

Ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise ...

* Isumi

Etymology

"Kujūkurihama" literally means "ninety nine ''ri'' (sandy) beach."

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...

was thought to order the measurement of the beach, and 99 arrows were stuck on the sand—one every ri. The unit "ri" was then 6 chō (approx. 660 m), but later the ri extended to 36 chō (ca. 3.9 km). The short ri of 6 chō has long been forgotten or not in use, thus today many believe and explain incorrectly that 99 is just an inference of its long distance. The actual length of the beach is approximately 66 km, making the original measurement by Minamoto no Yoritomo the correct one.

History

In 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 character ...

(1603 – 1868) a new

fishing net A fishing net is a Net (device), net used for fishing. Nets are devices made from fibers woven in a grid-like structure. Some fishing nets are also called fish traps, for example #Fyke nets, fyke nets. Fishing nets are usually meshes formed by ...

technology was brought from Kii Province, a province that covered present-day

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 ...

, as well as the southern part of

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefectur ...

. Seine fishing was introduced via trade maritime routes along the Kuroshio Current. Seine fishing, whereby a fishing net hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights, its top edge is buoyed by floats, and is held by fishermen or boats at either end. The introduction of seines allowed for the large-scale fishing of sardines in the region. Kujūkuri Beach became a noted center for the production of ''hoshika'', or dried sardines. After 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 ...

in the 19th century motorboats were used to support the net. In the last days of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the Allied forces planned to land on Kujūkuri Beach in

Operation Coronet During World War II, two operations in the Pacific theater were called Operation Coronet. * An early planning name for Operation Chronicle, which was executed in June 1943 * Part of Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan in March 1946, ...

. Japan's failure to complete the beach's defences on schedule contributed to Emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

's decision to surrender.

Flora and fauna

A northern species

chum salmon The chum salmon (''Oncorhynchus keta''), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus '' Oncorhynchus'' (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian A ...

returns to a river of the beach every year, the southernmost in Japan. According to a programme of NHK, Kujūkuri is the best place in Japan to observe the sanderling. These tiny birds can be seen on most spring and autumn days following the ebb and flow of the waves at amazing speeds in search of food. Kujūkuri Beach is a noted area for sardine fishing.

Japanese black pine ''Pinus thunbergii'' (syn: ''Pinus thunbergiana''), also called black pine, Japanese black pine, and Japanese pine, is a pine tree native to coastal areas of Japan (Kyūshū, Shikoku and Honshū) and South Korea. It is called () in Korean, () ...

s have been planted along the length of the beach to prevent erosion.

In popular culture

The song ''Omoide no Kujukurihama'' (''Kujukuri Beach of Memories''), by girl group

Mi-Ke Mi-Ke were an award-winning J-Pop idol group in the early 1990s. Formed as the chorus group for B.B.Queens under Being Inc. recording agency, they had several singles which made the music charts, and released a number of albums. Their music an ...

, peaked at #5 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike i ...

and 32 overall on the Japanese record charts in 1991, and was the theme song for the melodrama ''Nurse Station'' on TBS. It has been covered numerous times by other performers.

References

External links

99Beach Tourist Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kujukuri Beach Beaches of Japan Tourist attractions in Chiba Prefecture Landforms of Chiba Prefecture