A million pines planted in the seventeenth century: cutting one down was once a capital offence.
The shoreline runs for 4.5 kilometres, half a kilometre deep: a million black pines among which you can walk or cycle down to the beach on Karatsu Bay. The pine grove was commissioned by Terazawa Hirotaka, first daimyō of the Karatsu domain, as a barrier against wind and storm surges for the newly cultivated land: the edict that banned felling, on pain of death, kept it intact for four centuries.
Coastal pine grove planted at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Terazawa Shima-no-kami Hirotaka, first daimyō of the Karatsu domain, as a windbreak and barrier against the tides. National Special Natural Monument (特別名勝); one of the three great pine groves of Japan (日本三大松原).
ℹ️ Free access at all times. JR Chikuhi ‘Niji-no-Matsubara’ Station, from which it is a few minutes on foot; by car, 20 minutes from the Karatsu interchange on the Nishi-Kyūshū Jidōsha-dō. Free car park, 135 spaces.
🚉 Nijinomatsubura · in front of the station
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Nearby
Kagamiyama1.3 kmphoto by Katainaka · CC BY 3.0
Karatsu Castle3.8 kmphoto by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Former Takatori Residence4.3 kmphoto by STA3816 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nanatsugama — the seven sea caves13.4 kmphoto by Yukiko Yamamoto from flickr · CC BY 2.0