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Yakushima
Yakushima is a round mountain island about sixty kilometres south of the Kyushu mainland, in Kagoshima Prefecture and the Kyushu region, inscribed as a World Natural Heritage Site in 1993 for its forests of ancient cedar.
The moss forest, Yakushima
- Prefecture
- Kagoshima
- Region
- Kyushu
- Journeys
- The Custom Tour of Japan
overview
An island of granite and rain, where the cedars are older than the temples of Kyoto.
Yakushima rises almost straight out of the sea, a circle of granite about 130 kilometres around, crowned by Mount Miyanoura, at 1,936 metres the highest peak in Kyushu. The warm current flowing past the island meets the mountains, and the result is rain: over four thousand millimetres a year on the coast and far more in the high forest. The novelist Hayashi Fumiko wrote that it rains here thirty-five days a month, and the island has taken the line to heart.
That rain feeds the yakusugi, the cedars of Yakushima. Elsewhere in Japan a cedar lives for a few centuries; here, growing slowly in poor granite soil and dense with resin, they live for a thousand years and more, and the islanders keep the name yakusugi for those that have passed that age. Their trunks are wrapped in moss and ferns, and their fallen giants become gardens for the next generation. The forests were cut for roof shingles from the Edo period onwards, and the stumps of that work still stand in the forest, grown over with new trees.
Because the island climbs so steeply, it gathers in one small place the plants of a subtropical shore and those of a cold mountain, and in 1993 it became, with Shirakami-Sanchi, one of the two first natural World Heritage Sites of Japan. For a guest it is a place of quiet green: forests seen on gentle paths, waterfalls beside the coast road, onsen on the rocks by the sea, and deer and small monkeys at the roadside in the west.
Our tours stay overnightOur tours visit for the dayOn a Custom Tour of Japan
see and do
What to see on Yakushima
Yakusugi Land
A forest reserve at about a thousand metres in the south of the island, with boardwalks and paths of thirty to eighty minutes among cedars more than a thousand years old, the Buddha Cedar and the Twin Cedars among them.
Kigen-sugi
A cedar of some three thousand years standing just above the road beyond Yakusugi Land, its trunk heavy with moss and the plants that grow on it, one of the great trees of the island seen without a long walk.
Shiratani Unsuikyo
A ravine of moss and cedar above Miyanoura, the forest said to have inspired the animated film Princess Mononoke. Its lower paths, about an hour's gentle walk beside a clear stream over granite, lead among moss-covered roots and boulders.
Toroki Falls, Yakushima Okonotaki
A waterfall of 88 metres beside the coast road in the south-west, falling in a white sheet into a clear pool, counted among the hundred great waterfalls of Japan.
Senpiro no Taki
A waterfall pouring through a great bare dome of granite above the Tainoko River, seen from a viewpoint a few minutes from the road.
Toroki no Taki
One of the very few waterfalls in Japan that falls straight into the sea, dropping from the cliffs into a cove on the south coast beneath a bridge.
Nagata Inakahama
A long beach of golden sand on the north-west coast, the most important nesting beach in Japan for loggerhead turtles, listed under the Ramsar Convention in 2005.
Hirauchi Kaichu Onsen
An onsen in the rocks of the shore in the south, uncovered by the sea only around low tide, where the spring water rises among the stones beside the waves.
The Seibu Rindo
The western forest road, the one place where the World Heritage zone runs unbroken from the mountains to the sea, where Yakushima's small deer and macaques gather at the roadside.
Yakusugi Museum
A museum near Anbo devoted to the cedars, their age, their wood and the people who cut them, with a cross-section of a great fallen yakusugi.
experiences
The best of Yakushima
The cedars with a naturalist
A gentle walk in Yakusugi Land or the lower paths of Shiratani Unsuikyo with a guide who knows the forest, reading the age of the trees, the mosses and the stumps of the Edo period woodcutters.
The island by car
A day around the coast road with a private driver, stopping at the waterfalls, the turtle beaches and the forest road of the west, where the deer and monkeys come to the roadside.
An onsen on the rocks
An onsen on the shore at Hirauchi or Yudomari, with the sound of the sea a few metres away, at the low tide that uncovers it.
The food of the island
Kubiore saba, the island's mackerel, served as sashimi the day it is caught, flying fish, tankan oranges and the shochu of Yakushima's own distillery.
plan your visit
Yakushima on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- Two or three nights on the island; Yakushima is not a place to hurry, and a third night allows for the weather that makes its forests what they are.
- Getting there
- By air from Kagoshima in about forty minutes, with direct flights also from Fukuoka and Osaka, or by jetfoil from Kagoshima's port in about two hours. On the island, a private car and driver make the journeys to the forests easy.
- Pairs well with
- Yakushima is reached through Kagoshima, so the city, the onsen of Kirishima and the shore of Ibusuki fit before or after it.KagoshimaIbusukiKirishimaAmami OshimaFukuoka
journeys
Yakushima on a private journey
We bring guests to Yakushima on the Custom Tour of Japan, created around your party alone, on your dates, with your own Tour Director.
questions
Yakushima: questions answered
Do you need to hike to see the cedars of Yakushima?
No. Yakusugi Land and the lower paths of Shiratani Unsuikyo show cedars more than a thousand years old on gentle walks of an hour or so, and Kigen-sugi, some three thousand years old, stands just above a road. The celebrated Jomon Sugi lies a full day's walk into the mountains.
How do you get to Yakushima?
By air from Kagoshima in about forty minutes, or by jetfoil in about two hours. There are also direct flights from Fukuoka and Osaka.
How many days do you need on Yakushima?
Two or three nights, which allows a day in the cedar forests, a day around the coast and a little time to spare for the rain.
Why is Yakushima a World Heritage Site?
For its ancient cedar forests and for the way its vegetation climbs from subtropical plants on the shore to cool mountain forest near its summits. It was inscribed in 1993, one of the first two natural World Heritage Sites in Japan.
Does it rain a great deal on Yakushima?
Yes. The coast receives over four thousand millimetres a year and the high forest far more, which is why the mosses and cedars grow as they do.
Is Yakushima the Princess Mononoke forest?
The moss forest of Shiratani Unsuikyo is said to have inspired the forest of the animated film Princess Mononoke, and its lower paths are an easy walk.
Can Yakushima be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with your own Tour Director, and it can go anywhere in the country, Yakushima included. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
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Yakushima, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Yakushima, and we will answer with a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone, or, if you would rather travel independently, an Expert Japan Itinerary that plans every day for you.