Southwest Kochi · TosashimizuNo.852★★★Open in map →
Cape Ashizuri
The southern point of Shikoku, a wooded headland dropping into the Pacific at Tosashimizu. The deck at the tip opens the sea on three sides, and short paths behind it tie together a lighthouse, a sea arch and a pilgrimage temple.
- FromNakamura Station
- ~1 hr 45 minBus from Nakamura Station
- Get off atAshizuri-misaki (Kochi Seinan Kotsu bus)
- From there
- Cape Ashizuri
Where it is
18 more notes in Kochi · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Kongofukujithe pilgrimage temple by the road, a few steps from where the bus turns round
- Cape Ashizuri observation deckthe platform at the tip, with the Pacific open on three sides of it
- Camellia pathswalled lanes of wild camellia and subtropical growth linking the deck to the lighthouse
- Ashizuri-misaki Lighthousea white tower 18 metres tall on the cliff, its light carried 38 kilometres out to sea
- Hakusan Domona sea arch cut clean through the rock on the shore below the headland
How to actually get there
- Tosa Kuroshio Railway to Nakamura Station.
- Nakamura Station → Ashizuri-misaki (Kochi Seinan Kotsu bus, about 1 hr 45 min, last stop).
- Walk south-east from the stop to the observation deck, then take the branch east to the lighthouse.
- Come back down the western side for the sea arch, then return to the same stop.
- Kochi Seinan Kotsu bus from Nakamura Station
- Take the Tosa Kuroshio Railway to Nakamura, then the Kochi Seinan Kotsu bus for Ashizuri-misaki, which is the last stop on the line. The operator's own timetable puts the run at roughly an hour and three-quarters. Fares are distance-based and climb as the bus works down the peninsula.
- Back to Nakamura from the same stop
- Buses leave the cape from the stop you arrived at, spread across the day rather than running hourly, with the last departure in the early evening. There is no train out here to fall back on, so photograph the timetable when you get off.
About the place
The headland falls straight into the Pacific at the foot of the Ashizuri peninsula, at the southern end of Shikoku. From the observation deck the view carries through 270 degrees, so the sea runs away on three sides at once and the horizon reads as a curve rather than a line. Behind the deck the ground is packed with wild camellia and other subtropical growth, thick enough that the paths run as green tunnels. Branches lead off to the lighthouse on the cliff, down to a sea arch on the shore, and back to the temple by the road. The cape works as a circuit, not as a single viewpoint.
How to enjoy it
Take the cape as a loop rather than a lookout. Temple, deck and lighthouse stand within a few hundred metres of one another, and the sea arch adds a walk down to the shore and back up. Buses off the cape leave hours apart, so read the board at the stop first and decide whether the arch fits before you start walking.
Background & history
Kongofukuji, set back from the tip, is the thirty-eighth of the eighty-eight temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage and is attributed to the monk Kukai, so walkers have been arriving at this headland for centuries — long before there was a road to it. A body of local legend known as the Seven Wonders of Ashizuri is attached to the same ground. The lighthouse is the modern arrival: it was first lit in 1914 and still works, and the cape and the sea around it now sit inside Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park.
Before you go
- Cash
- The deck, the paths, the lighthouse cliff and the temple approach cost nothing to walk. Bus fares are distance-based and paid on board, so carry coins and small notes for the ride down the peninsula.
- Before you go
- The cape faces open Pacific and the deck is exposed on three sides, so wind and rain arrive with nothing in the way. On a bad weather day there is no indoor substitute out here — check the forecast before committing to the bus.
- Another way
- The same Kochi Seinan Kotsu route continues from the cape toward Shimizu and Sukumo, so the headland can be taken as a stop on the way through rather than an out-and-back from Nakamura. By car the approach is the peninsula road from Tosashimizu.
- After you get off
- The bus terminates at Ashizuri-misaki, a few steps from the temple gate. The deck is a short walk south-east through the trees, and the path to the lighthouse branches east before you reach the tip.