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Sanriku Fukkō NP, Miyagi
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Shizugawa Bay’s remarkable wetland is mostly underwater: its seaweed beds earned it Ramsar status in 2018, the first such seaweed-bed site in Japan and the Tōhoku region’s first marine Ramsar site.
After the 2011 tsunami, oyster farmers in the bay’s Tokura area rebuilt with just one-third as many farming facilities. Oysters that once took 3 years could be ready in 1; in 2016, the farm became Japan’s first ASC-certified aquaculture site.
Shizugawa’s octopus is celebrated with the local boast, “Akashi in the west, Shizugawa in the east.” A local account says surveys found abalone among its prey—a suggested reason for its prized flavor and texture.
Each winter, more than 100 black brant (kokugan) arrive from Arctic breeding grounds. They feed on eelgrass and rest on rocky shores, making Shizugawa Bay an important winter refuge for this nationally protected, threatened goose.
Three currents—the cold Oyashio and warm Kuroshio and Tsugaru currents—shape Shizugawa Bay. Their mix lets cold-water kombu and warm-water arame grow together, among more than 210 recorded seaweed and seagrass species.
Tsubakijima, the bay’s largest island, was once recorded as covered in old camellia trees. Tabunoki trees later took over, and the island is now also fondly known by locals as Aoshima.
Tsubakijima’s warm-temperate tabunoki grove marks the tree’s northern limit on Japan’s Pacific coast. The botanically important grove was designated a national natural monument in 1966.
In local fishing households, octopus has its own unlikely appliance: a dedicated washing machine. A Minamisanriku restaurateur says salt and a good tumble remove the sticky slime before the catch is often simply boiled—even for New Year.
Before octopus pots became common in the early Shōwa era, Shizugawa fishers used ishiyari: a flat stone tied to bamboo tipped with a hook, lowered from a boat to catch octopus.
Local legend says a weakened celestial maiden and a puppy were found on nearby Takeshima. The story says residents later raised memorial mounds at Tsu-no-Miya; the town still lists Tennyotsuka, the maiden’s mound, as a historic site.
