Zenigata Sunae

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Zenigatasand drawingKanonjiKotohiki ParkKanei Tsuho

Photo: buzzhiro / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) · original

Zenigata Sunae is one of the reasons Kagawa keeps coming up whenever the conversation turns to Japan's landscapes.

On the beach at Ariake in Kanonji there is a coin. Not a real one — a Kanei Tsuho, the Edo currency, drawn in the white sand at 122 metres east to west, 90 north to south and 345 metres around the rim. The story is that it was made in a single night in 1633 to greet the visiting lord Ikoma Takatoshi, and it has been maintained ever since by the townspeople, who turn out to rake it back into shape.

From the beach it is unintelligible. You have to go up to the observation deck on Kotohiki hill above the pine grove, where the distortion built into the drawing resolves and it reads as a perfect circle with a square hole. Local belief holds that anyone who sees it will not want for money. It is lit from sunset to ten at night and is free.

Plan your visit

Time to allow

45–60 minutes

Hours

Open at all times | Illuminated from sunset to 10:00 PM

Closed: Open year-round

Best time to visit

Year-round | Evening for the illumination

Entry fee

Free

How to reach it

Directions

Ariake-cho, Kanonji, inside Kotohiki Park. The viewing deck is on the summit of Kotohiki hill and is reachable by car or on foot from the park. From JR Kanonji Station take the Gogo-Takamuro community bus, which stops on request, to Kotohiki-koen. Free to visit, with a free recorded guide at the observation deck. The sand drawing is 122 m east to west, 90 m north to south and 345 m around, and is lit from sunset to 10:00 PM, normally green with gold and blue for limited periods.

Local knowledge

**View it from the hill, not the beach.** At ground level it is a shapeless bank of sand. The drawing is deliberately distorted to read as a circle from the observation deck. **Free recorded guide at the deck.** It explains the 1633 story and the maintenance, and costs nothing. **Lit until ten at night.** Green normally, with gold and blue on special occasions. The evening view is a different composition from the daytime one. **Townspeople keep it.** It is raked back into shape by volunteers several times a year. It is a maintained artefact, not a permanent structure. **Combine with Takaya Shrine.** The sky torii is about twenty minutes away in the same city and the two are the standard Kanonji pairing.

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