The nation of Japan, known in Japanese as Nihon or Nippon (日本), occupies an archipelago off the east coast of Asia. The four main islands are Hokkaidō in the north, Honshū (the largest) in the center, Shikoku in the south, and Kyūshū in the southwest. The country includes thousands of other islands of all sizes; among them the Ryūkyū (Nansei) Islands are a long chain extending to the southwest and including the large island of Okinawa, and the Nanpō Islands are another long chain extending south into the Pacific Ocean. Much of Japan is mountainous but the coastal regions are densely populated and urbanized; the country's population is about 126 million.
Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. This page lists lighthouses of two of the prefectures, Kyōto and Fukui. These prefectures have coasts that surround Wasaka Bay, a bight of the Sea of Japan on the southwestern coast of Honshū. This is a rugged and beautiful coast, with many small ports but only a few big ones. Maizuru in Kyōto Prefecture and Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture are the most important.
In Japanese the word for a lighthouse is tōdai or toudai (灯台). The words saki and misaki are for capes and headlands, hana ("nose") is a promontory, hantō is a peninsula, shima (also spelled sima or jima) is an island, bae is a reef, iwa or shi is a rocky reef, amase or se is a shoal, wan is a bay, nada is a sound or basin, kaikyō is a strait, kawa is a river, and kō or minato is a harbor.
Lighthouses in Japan are operated and maintained by the Japanese Coast Guard's Maritime Safety Agency. In general there is at least one Coast Guard Section Office in each prefecture, often two or more. Kyōto prefecture has one office at Maizuru and Fukui has one office at Tsuruga.
A note on the Sea of Japan/East Sea controversy: The Directory takes no side in any international dispute; it makes use of the terminology, names, and spellings as they currently exist in each area covered. The sea between Japan and Korea is called the Sea of Japan on the pages for Japan and the East Sea on the pages for Korea.
ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. JCG numbers are the Japanese Coast Guard's light list numbers. Admiralty numbers are from volume M of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication
- General Sources
- Lighthouses in Japan - Kyōto and Fukui
- A Japanese-language site covering the major lighthouses throughout the country.
- Lighthouse-Japan.com - Kyōto and Fukui
- Excellent photos with notes (in Japanese) for many of the lighthouses.
- Form of a Lighthouse - Kyōto and Fukui
- Another site with many photos of Japanese lighthouses. cited below as FOAL.
- Lighthouse Visit
- Another fine source of lighthouse photos.
- Online List of Lights - Japan
- Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas.
- Misty's Japanese Lighthouse Tour
- Photos and a few notes for lighthouses in all parts of the country.
- Lighthouses in Kyōto Prefecture and Fukui Prefecture
- Photos available from Wikimedia, including a fine collection of photos from Fukui Prefecture by Yoshihide Fujitane.
- Tsuruga Coast Guard Office - Major Lighthouses
- Interactive map leads to pages for each lighthouse in Fukui prefecture.
- Navionics Charts
- Navigation chart for southwestern Honshū.
Nokogiri Saki Light, Ōi, Fukui
Japanese Coast Guard Tsuruga Office photo
