Kushijima Near Yunotsu

Kushijima

Kushijima is a small uninhabited islet at the mouth of the entrance to the World Heritage Site ports of Yunotsu and Okidomari.

It can be reached on foot at low tide and a small bridge over a deep and narrow channel in the rocks makes this safe and easy.

During the time that the Mori clan controlled the silver mine and the surrounding area they had a small castle on the island to protect the harbours.

Nothing now remains, but it must have been at least a little substantial as it withstood an attack by Amago forces in the Warring States period of the mid 16th century.

There is a small beach and campsite here now and its quite a dramatic bit of coastline.

I am guessing that these man-made excavations in the rock are a fairly modern attempt to make pools for pleasure bathing, but I may be wrong.

Buy Goods From Japan

Yunotsu Harbour

Yunotsu Japan Travel

Early morning on Oct 15th 2019 and I start the third day of my walk along the Japan Sea Coast exploring as many of the nooks and crannies as I can.

Yunotsu is one of the sites included in the Iwami Ginzan World Heritage Site, and the old street of traditional hot spring guest houses and public baths is also a preservation district, but today I bypass that part of town and stick to the waters edge.

The port is now mostly a fishing port although there is a section where tetrapods are produced.

During the Edo and early Meiji periods it was a harbour used by the Kitamaebune ships on the major trade route that connected Osaka with Hokkaido.

Carved into the cliff is a small Buddhist shrine......

There are several side-inlets to the harbour filled with smaller fishing boats. Twenty years ago when we first came to the area one inlet had the remains of a large, modern boatbuilding factory, but it has long since gone.....

From one inlet a small tunnel leads through to Okidomari another site of World Heritage and one of the original Mori-controlled ports that served the silver mines..... I have already done a post....

From Kamano Beach into Yunotsu

 

To get from Kamano Beach in Fukumitsu to Yunotsu there is no coast road and so I have to head over a small group of hills. It's only about 2k and doesnt rise very much. No cars pass me. I delight in these little roads that are really more like 3 meter wide asphalt hiking paths with vehicles passing a few times a day.

The road comes into the narrow inlet that Yunotsu lies at the head of through a side-inlet lined with small fishing boats.

Across on the other side of the channel is the official fishing port with ice machine and offices. Behind it is the narrow valley that is home to the historical hot spring resort that Yunotsu is named after and now a World Heritage site connected to the Iwami Ginzan silver mines.

At the actual head of the inlet where the small river enters is the newer part of town where I can catch the train home at the end of this my second day exploring the nooks and crannies of the Japan Sea coast.

On the north side beyond the hots spring town is the old port of Okidomari, one of the two original ports that served the silver mines and that are also part of the World Heritage sites.....

On the way to the station I stop in at Anrakuji, a small temple with a rather nice dragon sculpted in plaster in the eaves. This kind of decoration is called kote-e, " trowel picture" and I have posted more examples.

Kamano Beach

Kamano Beach

Kamano Beach is immediately adjacent to Fukumitsu Beach, but is separated from it by a rocky promontory.

To get to it the road goes through a small tunnel which I am fairly certain is relatively modern.

Kamanoitself is a very small community with many empty houses and absolutely zero new houses. It would appear deserted except a couple of vegetable gardens that showed signs of life.

There was a large signboard commemorating the most famous son of Kamano, a certain Matsuraya Yohei. During the Edo eriod Kamano was art of the Tokugawa-controlled Iwami Ginzan Territory. The 19th  controller of Ginzan is famous for among other things introducing sweet potatoes into the region to stave off starvation. However, no-one knew how to store the sweet potatoes through the winter for replanting, and so they froze and rotted. Yohei figured out  to bury them deep underground in a large pot, and so became a hero.

From Kamano a narrow lane heads over the hills toward Yunotsu.

Buy Japanese Crafts

Fukumitsu Beach

 

About one kilometer further on from Imaura Harbour, I reached the beach at Fukumitsu.

On a sunny day, when the sky is blue, the calm sea turquoise, and the beach golden, its quite pretty. Popular with surfers and local summer bathers.

On an overcast day in the aftermath of a storm, it's not so pretty.

Fukumotsu is not a fishuing village. It has no harbour. It's an agricultural village,farming the river valley that snakes up towards Ginzan. This was all land controlled directly by the Shogunate in Edo, and Fukumitsu would have been prosperous supplying food to the mine.

Imaura Harbor

 

Continuing with the  second day of my in-depth exploration of the Sea of Japan coastline,I left the bounds of Gotsu and entered the realm of Oda and visited the harbour of Imaura.

I have passed through Imaura several times before while walking the narrow roads that hug the cpast here, but had never taken the side road that drops down to the fishing harbour.and was surprised by how big it was.

There are a lot of small islets and rocks just offshore that must provide some protection for the narbour, but like most places along the coast of Japan it is now protected and enclosed by massive concrete walls. The sheer amount of concrete poured  along the coast of Japan is probably not known to outsiders.

I wonder about the value of all the fish produced by this little harbour and if it ever approached the cost of all the concrete construction. But that was not the point..... LDP politicians will have won votes and concrete and construction companies will have made profits.

Set back up on the slope away from the waters edge a line of ramshackle fishermens huts suggest that before all the concrete this was probably just a protected beach rather than a harbour.

Yoshiura Beach

 

Unable to finish a couple of long pilgrimages I have started because of the pandemic, my explorations and walks this past year have been along the coast here in Shimane. I have been trying to explore every single little nook  and cranny of the coastline, as much as is possible from the land.

A few minutes' walk up the coast from Kuromatsu port is a tiny settlement of Yoshiura. There is a small shrine, but other than that only residences, many uninhabited, and some well advanced in decay.

There is a small beach, accessible by a narrow sandy path between some houses. On a sunny day I imagine it would be quite pretty.

There is no harbor of any kind but there were a bunch of small boats well above the high tide level. They didnt look as if they were used much.

Kuromatsu Fishing Port

Kuromatsu

The fishing harbor of Kuromatsu is just outside the main village in a small, adjacent cove. It is not very large but fairly typical of the thousands of small fishiung harbours found along Jaoan's almost 30,000 kilometers of coastline.

Now "protected" by huge, concrete seawalls, there is actually less concrete than found at many.

I suspect the tiny boats on the beach are used to put out small nets, drop off pots, and maybe harvest shellfish and seaweed. The half a dozen larger boats are squid boats.

The very powerful lights are used to trick the squid into thinking its a full moon and time to head to the surface for mating.

Buy tatami direct from Japan

Reflections of Hunting the Turquoise

 

Day 1 in Mitsu.

Day 2 in Kaga

Da3 in Kasaura

Day 4 Katae

Day 5 Mihonoseki

Hunting the Turquoise

 November is my favorite time of the year to go walking in Japan, and I usually spend a lot of time walking pilgrimage routes stalking the autumn colors. For obvious reasons this year is a little different and instead I chose to stay local and explore the coast of Shimane. Whe the sun is shining and the sea is calm then it becomes turquoise....... I went on a five day walk along the eastern half of the Shimane Peninsula in search of this turquoise.

On the first day I walked from Kashima to Kaga, The photo was taken in Owashi.

Day 2 was from Kaga up to Tako. This is the harbor in Okidomari in Tako village.

On the third day while heading for Sagiura, I turned a bend in the road and came to this stunning view looking down on Kitaura.

Before reaching Shichirui on the 4th day I skirted Tamayu Bay.

My destination at the end of 5 days was Mihonoseki.