Rosokujima / Candle Island was added to Your Favorites!
Daisen-Oki NP, Shimane
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The candle “lights” only when sunset, summit and boat line up. Small boats—many normally fishing vessels—head out from Fukuura or Akasaki, then cut engines for the moment; clouds and rough seas can spoil the view.
A local tale in an Okinoshima town-council record says a father from Kumi gave Rosokujima to his daughter when she married into nearby Shiro. Seeing its sunset “flame” was his sign that she was well.
Lava cooled into vertical columnar joints, and waves later stripped rock along those cracks and lava-flow layers. The result: a thin “wick” left standing above the broader base.
Rosokujima’s trachyte lava erupted about 5.5 million years ago. The rock was once part of a cape projecting from Dōgo; wave erosion removed its surroundings and left the pillar isolated.
The flat shelf around the rock is a natural wave-cut platform, not a human-made ledge. Waves carved it thousands of years ago, when sea level was a little higher than today.
