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Ise-Shima NP, Mie
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Local legend says a one-eyed, one-legged giant on offshore Daiō Island sent storms against Nakiri. Villagers fooled him with a huge straw sandal, and the 300-year-old festival that sends one to sea still prays for safe voyages and good catches.
A Nara-period wooden slip records bonito sent from Nakiri to the imperial court. In an 1822 national ranking, Nakiri’s bonito even landed the curious role of “judge”—and it is still offered at Ise Jingu’s annual harvest festival.
Plans for Daiosaki Lighthouse date to 1884. After a 1913 fishing-boat disaster killed 51 people and the 3,000-ton cruiser Otowa grounded on Daiō Rock, construction began; the light first shone on October 5, 1927.
Nakiri’s traditional bonito makers check the fish by hand as it smokes over a wood fire, then repeat the smoking-and-resting cycle more than 10 times. This painstaking method helps give the local bonito its prized aroma and flavor.
Daiosaki’s 23-meter lighthouse is a 4.2-meter-wide reinforced-concrete cylinder, with fan-shaped columns supporting its balcony and a classically styled entrance. Its distinctive 1927 design was registered as a national tangible cultural property in 2013.
The stone walls winding through Nakiri’s lanes are more than picturesque: they help shelter homes from strong sea winds. Local masons built them with nearby andesite, and in the early Showa period Nakiri stoneworkers traveled around Japan to build walls elsewhere.
From the lighthouse, an approaching ship may seem to rise over the horizon mast-first. That striking view is a simple way to notice Earth’s curvature, seen from a cape where the open Pacific stretches to the horizon.
Artists have come to sketch Nakiri since the late 1800s. In 1996, the former town of Daio declared itself the “Town of Painters,” celebrating not only its scenery and visiting artists but also the residents who welcomed them.
Daiosaki Lighthouse flashes one white light and one red light every 30 seconds. The white signal reaches about 34 kilometers, while the red reaches about 32 kilometers.
