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Ise-Shima NP, Mie
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U.S. carrier aircraft strafed the lighthouse during World War II, damaging its lantern and lens. The original Fresnel lens kept flashing until November 2005, and bullet marks remain on its metal frame.
Local legend says the giant Dandarabōshi lived on nearby Daiō Rock and lured ships toward the rocks. Nakiri’s annual Waraji-hiki rite counters him with a 2.3-meter, roughly 100-kilogram straw sandal, floated out to sea.
Plans for a lighthouse here date to 1884, but Daiosaki did not shine until 1927. In between, a 1913 Pacific saury-fishing-boat disaster killed 51 people—a grim chapter in the cape’s hazard-strewn history.
The lighthouse stands in Nakiri, which gives its bonito flakes their name: Nakiribushi. Makers judge the catch by season and fishing ground, then adjust heat and smoking by hand using the Teibiyama method established in the mid-Edo period.
When square concrete lighthouses were the norm, Daiosaki paired a round white tower with a fan-shaped, 2-story annex. Work began on May 16, 1927; its light came on October 5, five days before construction was complete.
Nearby Daiō Rock rises just 8.4 meters, yet sailors grouped this cape with Ise’s Kozaki and Kunizaki’s Yoro in a rhyme wishing all 3 dangers away. Another saying excused captains whose ships wrecked off Daiō.
The lighthouse is more than a ship’s guide: Japan Heritage notes that local ama divers use landmarks on shore to work out their position at sea, and identifies this tower as an important reference point for them.
Artists were already sketching Nakiri from the late Meiji era, before this lighthouse first lit in 1927. Its rugged coast and fishing village helped earn the town its “town of painters” identity; the lighthouse joined the picturesque subjects.
From Daiosaki, approaching ships appear over the horizon mast-first, then seem to rise gradually into view. It’s a striking, everyday demonstration of Earth’s curvature from the lighthouse.
