Horses roaming free since the eighteenth century graze around a 1929 lighthouse, the only one in Kyushu you can go up.
The southernmost headland of the prefecture has been home for about 300 years to the misakiuma (御崎馬), Japanese horses living semi-free: introduced as war and work horses by the Takanabe domain in the Edo period, they now number about a hundred, are a national Natural Monument, and graze without fences between the road and the lighthouse. Toimisaki Lighthouse, in reinforced concrete on an octagonal plan, was begun on 16 May 1929 and first lit on 22 December of the same year: it is 15 metres tall, stands on a cliff 240 metres above the sea, and is the only lighthouse in Kyushu that you can climb.
Cape Toi marks the southern end of the Nichinan coast, in the municipality of Kushima. The misakiuma horses have lived here semi-wild since the Edo period, when the Takanabe domain grazed them for military and agricultural use; today they are protected as a national Natural Monument and move freely along the scenic road and around the lighthouse. The lighthouse itself, built in 1929, was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財) on 29 March 2019: it has an octagonal reinforced-concrete structure and a balcony running all the way round below the lantern, and it is the second building in Kushima to receive this designation, after the former Yoshimatsu residence.
ℹ️ The lighthouse is open 9:00–17:00 (weekends and public holidays, March–October) and 9:00–16:30 (weekdays March–October and all of November–February), last entry 15 minutes before closing; 300 yen from junior high school up, free below that. ⚠️ From 1 March 2026 a 12:00–13:00 lunch break is planned, not verified on an open official source beyond the notice cited in the research. The headland and the view of the horses remain accessible with no ticket and no set hours. The access road is a toll road for vehicles.
🚉 都井岬 (Toimisaki) · 2 min walk
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