The nation of Japan, known in Japanese as Nihon or Nippon (日本), is divided into 47 prefectures. This page lists lighthouses of the southern part of the Japanese prefecture of Wakayama, which faces southwest on the Pacific Ocean southeast of Ōsaka. The prefecture includes a large part of the scenic Kii Peninsula, which projects southward into the Pacific and is the southernmost coast of Honshū. This is a rugged and scenic coast marked by a series of major lighthouses. In Japanese the word for a lighthouse is tōdai or toudai (灯台). The words saki and misaki are for capes and headlands, hana ("nose") is a promontory, hantō is a peninsula, shima (also spelled sima or jima) is an island, bae is a reef, iwa or shi is a rocky reef, amase or se is a shoal, wan is a bay, nada is a sound or basin, kaikyō is a strait, kawa is a river, and kō or minato is a harbor. Lighthouses in Japan are operated and maintained by the Japanese Coast Guard's Maritime Safety Agency. On Honshū there is usually at least one Coast Guard Section Office in each prefecture; Wakayama has two, at Tanabe and at Wakayama City. The Tanabe office is responsible for all the lighthouses on this page. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. JCG numbers are the Japanese Coast Guard's light list numbers. Admiralty numbers are from volume M of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
|
|
|
![]() Katsuo Shima Light, Taiji Japanese Coast Guard Fifth District photo |
|
![]() Kushimoto Kō North Breakwater Light, Kushimoto Japanese Coast Guard Tanabe Office photo |
|
|
|
![]() Ichie Saki Light, Tanabe Japanese Coast Guard Tanabe Office photo |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: Northeast: Southern Mie Prefecture | Northwest: Northern Wakayama
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted November 5, 2006. Checked and revised May 12, 2022. Lighthouses: 30. Site copyright 2022 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.