Tatsukushi Visitor Center Uminowa was added to Your Favorites!
Ashizuri-Uwakai NP, Kochi
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
At Sakurahama beside Uminowa, a loggerhead nest laid May 25, 2020, hatched 74 days later. Twelve trapped hatchlings were freed, and their specimens and tiny track casts later appeared in a center exhibition.
Uminowa’s sightseeing concierge can suggest mejika shaving, a hands-on link to souda-bushi, the rich broth stock made from local fish. Tosashimizu is Japan’s top producer, making about 70% of the national output.
In 2019, local tourism workers and high-school students brainstormed Uminowa’s nickname together. They chose soft hiragana to keep its meaning open: “sea circle,” linking the coast, people and nature.
On Marine Day, July 17, 2023, Uminowa took visitors to Sakurahama, the beach just outside, to beachcomb for shells and washed-up finds. Back indoors, they turned their treasures into handmade objects.
At Uminowa, reef protection starts on land too: local volunteers help maintain forests and control starfish that damage corals—a vivid reminder that hillside care and coral life are connected.
Uminowa is set up for more than looking: its lab has a sink, workbench and 3 microscopes. The center also helps connect scientists with residents studying Tatsukushi’s rocks and marine life.
Uminowa offers a beach wheelchair free of charge—an uncommon, practical way for visitors with limited mobility to experience the sand and sea right outside the center.
