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Sanriku Fukkō NP, Iwate
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Local boatmen guide a 5–7-passenger craft through Anatoshiiso’s middle arch; when the sea is calm enough, they may pass through another opening too. The coastal cruise takes about 40 minutes.
On April 2, 2011, just 22 days after the tsunami, a photo showed Anatoshiiso’s arches unchanged—while the nearby Ofunato Bay breakwater had collapsed. A regional geological association recorded the contrast.
The 3 arches formed as waves wore through weaker boundaries and cracks between steeply tilted sandstone-and-shale layers. Those layers are about 130 million years old—a slice of Cretaceous seabed now standing almost upright.
A 1937 photo caption called the 3 openings “parent-and-child sea gates.” By 1971, city materials used 穴通磯—literally “hole-pass-through-shore.” The older wording is documented as a caption, not necessarily an old local name.
Local guides add a playful blessing to the boat ride: passing through the arch is said to bring happiness, and one Goishi Coast guide links it with hopes for children and safe childbirth. It’s folklore, not a guarantee.
