Tsurugisaki Lighthouse
Tsurugisaki Lighthouse (剱埼灯台, Tsurugisaki tōdai) is a lighthouse located on Cape Tsurugi on the southeastern extremity of the city of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan on the southernmost and eastern tip of Miura Peninsula. (On the southernmost western tip of Miura Peninsula stands the Jōgashima Lighthouse.)
Tsurugisaki Lighthouse | |
Japan | |
Location | Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
---|---|
Coordinates | 35°08′25″N 139°40′38″E |
Year first constructed | 1871 (first) |
Year first lit | 1925 (current) |
Automated | yes |
Foundation | concrete |
Construction | concrete tower |
Tower shape | octagonal tower with balcony and lantern |
Tower height | 16.9 metres (55 ft) |
Focal height | 41.1 metres (135 ft) |
Original lens | 2nd order Fresnel |
Intensity | 520,000 candela |
Range | 18 nautical miles (33 km; 21 mi)[1] |
Characteristic | Al Fl (2+1) W G 40s |
Admiralty number | M6354 |
NGA number | 5044 |
ARLHS number | JPN-698 |
Japan number | JCG-2018[2] |
The Tsurugisaki Lighthouse was one of eight lighthouses to be built in Meiji period Japan under the provisions of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858, signed by the Bakumatsu period Tokugawa Shogunate. The lighthouse was designed and constructed by British engineer Richard Henry Brunton. Brunton constructed another 25 lighthouses from far northern Hokkaidō to southern Kyūshū during his career in Japan.
The Tsurugisaki Lighthouse was completed on March 1, 1871 and was designed to protect shipping entering Tokyo Bay via the Uraga Channel, with its light visible as far as the Bōsō Peninsula on the eastern shore of the bay. The original structure was destroyed during the Great Kantō earthquake on September 1, 1923 and was replaced with the current reinforced-concrete structure on July 4, 1925. The lighthouse has been unmanned since 1991.
It is currently maintained by the Japan Coast Guard.
References
- Brunton, Richard. Building Japan, 1868–1879. Japan Library, 1991. ISBN 1-873410-05-0
- Pedlar, Neil. The Imported Pioneers: Westerners who Helped Build Modern Japan. Routledge, 1990. ISBN 0-904404-51-X
Notes
- Turugi Saki Japan Coast Guard
- Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Japan: Tōkyō Area". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved February 18, 2016.