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San'in Kaigan NP, Tottori
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
A local story says Edo-period lord Ikeda Tsunakiyo offered a 1,000-kan stipend to anyone who could move this rock-top pine to his garden. 千貫松島 (Sengan Matsushima) keeps that extravagant challenge alive in its name.
The pine atop the arch today is not the tree that inspired the island’s name: the original died, and the one visitors see now is its second generation. Even this familiar silhouette has a before-and-after story.
The rock arch is a real passage, not just a picture frame: a San’in Geopark trail guide shows a small sightseeing boat slipping right through Sengan Matsushima’s opening.
At nearby Ajiro Harbor, morning-market squid are hung on ropes for “hinnaka-boshi” (“half-day drying”) in the sea breeze. Neighboring Tajiri lays squid on blinds to sun-dry—two harbors, two local surume styles.
Sengan Matsushima’s arch is carved from granite. Waves and winter winds work along natural cracks in the stone, gradually shaping the tunnel and the offshore rock into this striking island.
The lone pine is a fine example of coastal trees’ toughness: pine roots can plunge into granite cracks to anchor and reach moisture, while black pines tolerate salt spray—useful traits where many trees struggle to grow.
Sengan Matsushima is part of Uradome Coast, which was designated both a National Place of Scenic Beauty and a Natural Monument on March 27, 1928—two forms of recognition for one remarkable coastline.
