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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
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Local tradition says Shirahama’s sanma-zushi began during a famine: a shrine priest prayed to the island gods, then saury washed ashore. The fish became a festival dish and, later, the area’s pressed sushi.
Shirahama’s pressed saury sushi takes 3 days to make. Local innkeepers standardized a recipe for public sales, while families still keep their own subtle variations—a shared regional taste with homegrown signatures.
A passage from an 832 Heian-era chronicle says the deity later enshrined at Shirahama filled valleys and made broad new land. Volcanologist Masato Koyama interprets it as a Miyakejima eruption—not an event at this beach.
Shirahama’s dazzling sand is a mix, not one uniform white mineral. A study found fragments of pale igneous rock alongside coral and shell pieces, making the beach’s signature color a tiny geology lesson underfoot.
This coast gave its name to the Shirahama Group, a formation of ancient submarine volcanic deposits spread across southern Izu. Nearby cliff layers can preserve fossils of shells, coral and sea urchins—reminders of the old seafloor.
At October’s shrine festival, the opening fire rite on Shirahama coast signals the start to deities on Izu’s offshore islands. Shrine lore says the gods arrived riding the Kuroshio and made islands—so the flames speak across the sea.
The festival ends at Daimyojin Rock with a bamboo wand bearing folded paper sent toward island deities. Local tradition says the seasonal west wind, Onbe-nishi, carries the message across the water.
At Shirahama Shrine, just behind the beach, more than 100 junipers grow in a prefecture-designated natural monument grove. The largest old tree stands 15.4 m tall, with a 6.1 m circumference measured at chest height.
On Shimoda’s monitored beaches, including Shirahama, a loggerhead may climb ashore and still turn back: aquarium researchers say noise or light can disrupt its search for a suitable nest site.
In 2026, the local Sea Festival reached its 58th edition, with taiko, hula and fireworks over Shirahama Ohama—a long-running summer gathering organized by the area’s tourism association.
