Japan Heritage story
Wakanoura: a bay of views that inspired poets
絶景の宝庫 和歌の浦
At low tide the flats shine, at high tide the bay fills and old stone bridges cast shadows. Wakanoura in Wakayama has moved emperors and poets for 1,300 years, and even gave the prefecture its name.
Key facts
- Theme
- Castles, Sea and waterside, Festivals and rituals
- Era
- Nara, Heian
- Region
- Kansai, Chugoku
- Official name in Japanese
- 絶景の宝庫 和歌の浦
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 和歌山県（和歌山市, 海南市）
The story
About 1,300 years ago, Emperor Shomu came here in the year he took the throne, was moved by the changing tidal flats and ordered the view protected. The poet Yamabe no Akahito wrote of cranes rising from the flats as the tide came in, and once his poem was included in the Kokinshu anthology, Wakanoura became a sacred place for waka poetry. Sotoorihime, a poet of legendary beauty, is worshipped as a god of waka at Tamatsushima.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi named his new castle, Wakayama, after the bay, and the name passed to the city and prefecture. In the Edo period, Tokugawa Yorinobu built Kishu Toshogu shrine and a pagoda on the small island of Imoseyama, with a stone bridge and pavilion opened to everyone, so ordinary people could enjoy the famous view.
What to see
- Tamatsushima shrine: the shrine of the god of waka, at the heart of the bay.Google Maps 玉津島神社 (opens in a new tab)
- Kimiidera: temple 2 of the Saigoku pilgrimage, with spring cherry blossoms and views over the flats.Google Maps 紀三井寺 (opens in a new tab)
- Kishu Toshogu: the shrine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose grand festival is the Waka Matsuri.Google Maps 紀州東照宮 (opens in a new tab)
- Yosuien: a rare tidal daimyo garden fed by seawater.Google Maps 養翠園 (opens in a new tab)
- Wakaura Tenmangu: a shrine to the god of letters, looking down over the inlet.
Plan your trip with the Wakayama prefecture guide, and see more gardens and parks and shrines and temples.
Good to know
- Visit at both low and high tide if you can: the bay looks completely different.
- Climb to Kimiidera in spring for cherry blossoms over the flats.
- The Waka Matsuri festival parades with the bay as its backdrop.
Questions travellers ask
How is Wakanoura linked to the name Wakayama?
Toyotomi Hideyoshi named his castle Wakayama after Wakanoura, and the name passed to the city and prefecture.
Why is Wakanoura sacred to poets?
Its views inspired famous poems from the Nara period on, and the god of waka poetry is worshipped at Tamatsushima here.
Where it comes from
More heritage stories from the same area
- Aizu's 33 Kannon pilgrimage: faith with a day out
- Asuka: the women who shaped the birth of Japan
- Date Masamune's dazzling culture in Sendai and Matsushima
- Fukiya: the birthplace of Japan Red
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Hirokawa: the tsunami levee built for a hundred generations
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
- Izumo: the sacred land where the sun sets
- Japan's old schools: where a nation learned to read
- Kamenose: crossing the landslide heart of the Tatsuta Kodo
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
Local foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.