Tsurishima Lighthouse

Tsurushima Lighthouse: A Scottish-Designed Stone Beacon Guarding the Seto Inland Sea

Rising on a quiet sub-tropical island roughly five kilometres off the western shore of Matsuyama, Tsurushima Lighthouse (釣島灯台, Tsurushima Tōdai) is one of Japan's earliest Western-style stone lighthouses still in active service. Designed in 1871 by the Scottish civil engineer Richard Henry Brunton — affectionately remembered as the "Father of Japanese Lighthouses" — and first lit on 15 June 1873, the white-painted granite tower has watched over the treacherous Tsurushima Channel between the Iyo-nada and Aki-nada seas for more than 150 years. In January 2024, the lighthouse, together with its former keepers' quarters, former warehouse, surrounding stone walls and original sundial, was designated a National Important Cultural Property of Japan, recognising its exceptional value in the history of Meiji-era modernisation and maritime trade.

A Beacon Born from the Opening of Japan

To understand why a small Ehime island holds a national treasure of engineering, we must travel back to the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1866, the shogunate signed the Convention of Edo with Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands, pledging — among other obligations — to install lighthouses, buoys and beacons along the coasts that would soon be opened to foreign trade. With the port of Hyōgo (modern-day Kobe) preparing to open, the shipping lanes of the Seto Inland Sea suddenly required reliable navigational aids of a quality unfamiliar to a country that had largely relied on simple stone fire-baskets and lantern towers.

Under pressure from Britain's envoy Sir Harry Parkes, the Edinburgh firm of D. and T. Stevenson was contracted to advise on the project, and in August 1868 a young Scottish engineer named Richard Henry Brunton arrived in Yokohama to lead it. Over the next seven and a half years, Brunton would design twenty-six Western-style lighthouses around the Japanese coast — works he himself called his "children" — and Tsurushima Lighthouse stands as the eighth among them in order of construction. Building began in October 1871 and continued for nearly two years; on 15 June 1873, with the British keeper formally taking up his post, the lamp was finally lit.

Why Tsurushima Lighthouse Was Designated a National Important Cultural Property

The 2024 designation honours far more than the lighthouse's age. Three intertwined values stand out in the official assessment.

Architectural Highlights and Things to See

Visiting Tsurushima

Reaching Tsurushima is itself part of the experience. The island lies about five kilometres west of Matsuyama and has neither hotels nor restaurants, so most visitors plan a day trip. Ferries operated by Nakajima Kisen sail twice each morning and twice each afternoon from Mitsuhama Port (about 40 minutes) and from Takahama Port (about 25 minutes). From Tsurushima Port, a paved farm road climbs gently for around twenty minutes through tangerine, mikan and lemon orchards before reaching the lighthouse grounds.

The exterior of the lighthouse, the keepers' quarters and the warehouse can be admired free of charge during daylight hours throughout the year. The interior of the keepers' quarters is, as a rule, closed, but the City of Matsuyama opens it to the public roughly three times each year through advance public registration, so checking the city tourism page before travel is rewarding. Because the lighthouse remains a working facility of the Japan Coast Guard, visitors are asked to respect signage and to avoid open flames anywhere on the grounds.

Travellers may want to bring water, lunch and any needed snacks, since shops on the island are extremely limited.

Beyond the Lighthouse: The Kutsuna Islands and Mitsuhama

Tsurushima is the smallest and westernmost member of the Kutsuna island group, a chain of inhabited islands that has shaped Matsuyama's culture for centuries. From the same ferry network you can continue to Nakajima — the largest of the group, famed for citrus orchards and a long beach at Himegahama — or stop at Mutsukijima or Nogutsunajima for quieter island life. Back on the mainland, the historic port quarter of Mitsuhama is one of Matsuyama's most evocative neighbourhoods, with old merchant houses, an active morning fish market, and a pleasing twenty-minute walk to Iyotetsu's Mitsu Station for a return to the city centre. Matsuyama itself adds Dōgo Onsen, one of Japan's oldest hot-spring destinations, and the soaring keep of Matsuyama Castle to the agenda.