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Setonaikai NP, Okayama
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Before park planner Tsuyoshi Tamura visited, Shimotsui town and its railway had already promoted Washu’s lookout. The mountain became a national Place of Scenic Beauty in 1930, then helped anchor Setonaikai National Park in 1934.
The Washuzan site was the first in western Japan to confirm Paleolithic habitation. From 35,000 to 18,000 years ago, people used Sanukite from today’s Kagawa, reachable on foot because sea level was over 100 m lower.
Washuzan Rest House features Shimotsui octopus rice, a dish local tourism sources say began as fishermen’s onboard meal. It’s a tasty connection between the lookout above and the fishing grounds below.
At Washu’s Kusumi Nose, yellow-orange tangles between the rocks are not pasta but sea-hare egg masses. Kurashiki nature monitors recorded them there in 2016; adults can grow 25–30 cm long.
In 1931, writer Tokutomi Soho named Washu’s summit Shoshuho, meaning a place where the Inland Sea’s finest scenery gathers. His own calligraphy appears on a stone monument there.
The walk from Washu’s summit toward a bridge-facing lookout passes a group of 4 kofun, or burial mounds. A survey recorded horizontal stone chambers in 2 ridge-top tombs; some of the mounds date to the late 6th century.
Seen from the northeast, Washu’s outline resembles a giant eagle spreading its wings—the source of its name. The name appears in records from the mid-Edo period, so this image has been around for centuries.
Washu’s panorama needs a little help from people: an Environment Ministry Green Worker project cut trees blocking views from 2004 to 2006. Park plans call for monitoring so regrowth does not close those sightlines again.
