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Sanriku Fukkō NP, Aomori
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Tanesashi has its own saussurea: Hachinohe-tohiren was described as a distinct species in 2008. It grows in exposed coastal grassland, where botanists think its leathery leaves help it withstand the wind.
A Hachinohe temple priest describes one local Obon custom: 18 hamanasu rose hips are strung into a ring of prayer beads. In his account, 18 represents one-sixth of Buddhism’s 108 worldly passions.
Tanesashi is a botanical meeting line: the Nippon daisy (hamagiku) reaches its natural northern limit here, while Ezo angelica reaches its southern limit. Flowers from opposite ends of Japan share one shore.
Local guides count more than 650 wild plant species along Tanesashi. Cool, ground-freezing Yamase winds and a patchwork of rocky shore, sand, wetlands and grassland let very different flowers grow side by side.
The 7-hectare central meadow is not simply untouched wilderness: horses grazed these grasslands before the Kamakura era. Today, local people maintain the short turf with regular care and mowing.
Each bright-yellow Nikko-kisuge flower lasts only a day, though new buds open through the season. Its other Japanese name, zenteika, is a handy one to remember when spotting it in Tanesashi’s grasslands.
Michinoku adonis is one of Tanesashi’s spring signals and is listed as Near Threatened on Japan’s 2025 Red List. A local flower guide notes that its bowl-shaped bloom gathers sunlight to warm its center.
The local flower guide calls marubadakebuki one of Tanesashi’s “sea-level alpine plants”: this mountain plant grows in windy coastal grassland at 0 metres above sea level.
A local wildflower guide remembers beach pea’s small young fruits as a snack for children on the shore. Its thick leaves store water—a useful trait for a plant growing in salty coastal sand.
Tanesashi became a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 1937. The landscape’s recognized character includes more than dramatic rocks and surf: its grasses, flowers, beaches and black-tailed gulls are part of the picture too.
Painter Kaii Higashiyama sketched at Tanesashi in 1940, returned in 1950, and then presented his celebrated painting The Road. The coast is believed to have helped inspire the work.
From 2011 to 2017, repeated efforts removed 3,671,251 invasive coneflowers from the Tanesashi coast. Hachinohe’s 2026 records also scheduled further invasive-plant control and disposal work.
Those little ridges across the turf may be mole tunnels. The national tourism agency’s Tanesashi interpretation says the moles’ digging helps keep the grassland healthy.
