West Fukuoka · ItoshimaNo.776★★Open in map →
Sakurai Futamigaura
— Meoto-iwa and a white torii on the Genkai Sea
A sandy, west-facing bay on the north coast of Itoshima, with two roped rocks offshore and a white torii standing in the shallows. The shore is treated as sacred ground rather than as a beach.
- FromHakata Station
- ~70 minJR line, then a coast bus
- Get off atKyudai-Gakkentoshi Station (JR Chikuhi Line)
- From there
- Sakurai Futamigaura
The sweet spot
Futamigaura is on every Itoshima drive and it is not a secret. What is easy to get wrong is the timing and the direction of travel: the coast road runs one way past the bay, the bus is not frequent, and the light does its work in a narrow window. Arrive in the middle of the afternoon and you get the colour of the water. Arrive at dusk and you get the silhouette, but you share the verge with every car on the road.
Where it is
28 more notes in Fukuoka · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The coast lane above the beacha single road along the top of the sand, with cafes and a paid car park on it
- The sand and the shallowsa gently shelving bay that reads green in the middle of the day
- The white toriia white gate standing in the shallows toward the eastern end of the sand
- Meoto-iwathe paired rocks offshore, the taller 11.8 metres and its partner 11.2
- The rope between the rocksthirty metres of rice straw weighing about a tonne
How to actually get there
- Hakata → Kyudai-Gakkentoshi, running west onto the JR Chikuhi Line.
- Take the Showa Bus Nishinoura route from the station out along the coast.
- Get off at Futamigaura and drop down to the sand.
- Walk east along the beach to the white torii, with the rocks offshore in front of you.
- West to Kyudai-Gakkentoshi, then the coast bus
- From Hakata, trains run west across the city and on to the JR Chikuhi Line; get off at Kyudai-Gakkentoshi. From the forecourt the Showa Bus Nishinoura route heads out along the coast and calls at Futamigaura. The same bay is served from Chikuzen-Maebaru on the Nokita and Futamigaura route.
- Back to Hakata
- The coast bus returns the same way to Kyudai-Gakkentoshi, and trains run east from there into Hakata. Services along the coast are thin after dark, so if you are staying for the sunset, read the last departure off the stop while it is still light.
About the place
Two granite rocks sit about a hundred and fifty metres off a shallow, sandy bay on the north coast of Itoshima, with a rope strung between them. Because the bay opens west onto the Genkai Sea, the place is organised around the afternoon rather than the morning: the water runs from green to blue as the light drops, and the rocks go to silhouette. Behind the sand there is a single coastal lane with cafes and a car park along it, so the shore reads as one long west-facing terrace instead of a single lookout. People gather and clear in the hour on either side of sunset.
How to enjoy it
The bay starts to work from mid-afternoon, and around the summer solstice the sun sets between the two rocks rather than beside them. The rope is re-hung on a spring tide between late April and early May, the one date in the year when the rocks themselves are the event. Buses along this coast are sparse, so settle your return before you settle on the sand.
Background & history
The rocks are not a view that later acquired a shrine. The shore itself is held as the sacred ground of Sakurai Shrine, a short way inland, and Izanagi and Izanami are worshipped here. Ise has its own Futamiokitama with wedded rocks, read as a place of sunrise; this coast faces the opposite way and is known locally as the sunset counterpart. The white torii in the shallows belongs to that shrine rather than to anything standing on the sand.
Before you go
- Cash
- The beach, the torii and the view cost nothing. The car park behind the sand is run by the city and charged by the hour.
- Before you go
- This is an open coast with no gate and no closing time, and it is exposed to match: the Genkai Sea puts wind and spray over the road in winter, and a grey afternoon removes the whole point of the place. Swimming belongs to the summer season only, and the rocks are offshore, not something to reach on foot.
- Another way
- From Chikuzen-Maebaru Station the Nokita and Futamigaura route runs to the same stop, which suits a day taking in the west of Itoshima as well. By car the coast road from Fukuoka runs the length of the peninsula, and the bay has a paid car park with a limit on vehicle size.
- After you get off
- Kyudai-Gakkentoshi is where the railway ends and the coast bus takes over; that ride is the scenic part rather than a chore. From the Futamigaura stop the sand is a few minutes downhill, and the white torii is visible from the road.