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Saikai NPKujukushima, Nagasaki
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From mid-February to late March, white-naped and hooded cranes flying north from their wintering grounds in Izumi pass over Ishidake. On peak days, flocks of around 600 may stream by in noisy V-formations.
The famous film view wasn’t shot from the summit platform: the opening scene of The Last Samurai was filmed at a lower lookout here on September 21, 2003.
“Ninety-nine” is a Japanese stand-in for countless: Kujukushima actually has 208 islands. The count includes only land above the highest tide with terrestrial plants; just 4 islands are inhabited.
During the cranes’ northbound migration, cranes at nearby Morikirara zoo can be heard calling loudly—as if answering wild flocks passing over Ishidake. The spring sky show has a soundtrack, too.
Ishidake’s 360° sweep is a Sasebo double portrait: one side opens onto the green islands of Saikai National Park; another frames the city’s shipyards and naval vessels in the harbor.
Until World War II, Kujukushima’s islands were long kept as military land, and few people set foot on them. Ishidake Observatory opened in 1959, 4 years after the national park’s designation, amid Sasebo’s postwar push toward tourism.
Ishidake was named to Japan’s “100 Best Sunsets” list in 1999. Sasebo even made a month-by-month guide showing where and when the sun sets from this lookout.
In 2008, Sasebo asked people to nominate their favorite places to see Kujukushima. Ishidake became one of the 8 viewpoints selected for the city’s “Kujukushima Eight Views.”
