How to get to Tsushima
and its Overview
Location of Tsushima and its overview map
Source of the map:   Use-permitted 3DCG Maps
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　 　 　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
Transportation to get to Tsushima
Kyushu Yusen
provides 2 services a day round trip between Fukuoka and Izuhara by Jet Foil, a high-speed passenger boat, 2 services a day round trip between Fukuoka and Izuhara and 1 service a day round trip between Fukuoka and Hidakatsu by ferry boat.
Ohkawa Kaiun
provides 4 services a day round trip between Fukuoka and Hidakatsu from Monday to Saturday and 2 services a day round trip between the two on Sunday.
ANK(Air Nippon)
provides 6 services a day round trip between Fukuoka and Tsushima and 2 services a day round trip between Nagasaki and Tsushima.
Overview of Tsushima
Size
     Tsushima is long and narrow, with the width of 18 km from east to west, the length of 82 km from north to south, and the  area of 705 sq. km.  Tsushima consists of two main islands, Kamijima, the one in the north, and Shimojima, the other in the south,  and more than 100 small islands surrounding the two.  Among the islands in Japan, it is the forth largest next to the mainland Okinawa, Sadogashima, and Amami Ohshima.
     Tsushima means in Japanese a pair of horses.  It was named in such a fashion since it looks as if 2 horses were standing in a line one after the other.
Climate
     Tsushima is located in the middle of the Tsushima Current.  It is a warm current and a branch of the Japan Current (also called the Black Current), which comes into the Sea of Japan passing by the west  of the Gotoh Archipelago.  Thanks to the current,  it is unexpectedly warm.  The annual average temperature is 15 degrees C and around 1 to 2 degrees C higher than that of Tokyo.  It often gets chilly due to the seasonal wind from the northwest from fall to early spring.  In summer it is a little lower in temperature than in the  mainland Kyushu, because it is located in the north of it.  In addition, the daytime is slightly shorter in Tsushima, which leads to mild climate. 
     The annual rainfall amounts to 2,200 mm, which is somewhat high due to the Tsushima current.  However, it snows very little in winter.  From October to February, in the morning of a fine day on which the air is clear and gets strongly radiated and cooled down, multiple layers in the air with different densities are developed on the surface of the sea.  The development of these air layers are called Shimayose or floating islands.  It is a kind of mirage phenomenon.
Cultural junction with the Asian Continent
     Tsushima is just  50 km away from the Korean Peninsula at the shortest.  It is just a distance away so that  we can see at the edge of Tsushima the mountains in the peninsula on a fine day.  Because of such a short distance from the peninsula, Tsushima has been a key junction of culture with the Asian Continent since the old times. 
     Buddhism came to Japan by way of Tsushima in the ancient time.  In the Kamakura Shogunate Era, when the Mongolians attacked Japan at Kyushu in the year 1974 and again in 1981, Tsushima became a fierce battle field.  Hideyoshi Toyotomi,  who politically unified Japan in the Warring Era, built castles on the mountains in Tsushima for his invasion to the Korean peninsula. 
     The diplomacy and cultural interaction between Korea and Japan had been discontinued after the Hideyoshi Toyotomi's invasion to Korea.  The diplomatic relation restarted in the Tokugawa Shogunate Era. Diplomats traveled back and forth between Japan and Korea through Tsushima.  The interaction and trade with Korea brought much wealth to Tsushima in those days.  There had been a clan in Tsushima in the Tokugawa Shogunate Era, with its annual rice harvest of 100,000 koku, hereditarily reigned by the Soh family as the feudal lord.  (In the era, there ware clans across the country.  Basically each clan was politically and economically autonomous, as long as it was faithful to the Tokugawa Shogunate government holding the central, national regime.  Each clan was classified by its annual rice harvest, and koku is the Japanese-unique unit of measure for it.  A feudal lord called Daimyo was appointed to each clan by the central government with the absolute dictatorship of Shogun.  The clan was ruled hereditarily by the family of Daimyo in those days).  The clan and the Soh family enjoyed great prosperity in those days, and the remains are still seen within the islands. 
     In the Russo-Japanese war from 1904 to 1905, Tsushima was designated as one of the important fortresses for the Japanese national defense.  The Japanese navy met offshore Tsushima the Russian Baltic fleet , which was considered to be unrivaled in those days, and defeated it. 
     Tsushima has played important roles throughout the whole two-thousand-year-long history of Japan as a nation.  It is called the islands of cultural assets or the treasure house for ethnology, because of its many historic sites still existing and providing much information valuable to find out the relations with Korea and the continent and roots of Japanese culture.
Biological junction with the Asian Continent
     The study of geologic times says that the Japanese islands, including Tsushima, repeatedly had  been connected to the Asian Continent at the south of Honshu and the north of Kyushu one time and isolated from it another time.  In the glacial epochs, which had taken place a couple of times on the globe and extendedly large sheets of glacial covered the entire globe,  the level of seawater went down, and the islands and the continent were put together.  In the interglacial epochs, in which the temperature went up, the level of seawater went up and the islands and the continent were torn off.  Animals and plants traveled between the Japanese islands and the continent back and forth during the connections by way of Tsushima.  During the isolations, the straits ran in the east and west of Tsushima.  The currents of seawater passed through the straits, and carried animals and plants.  At the end of the last glacial epoch, around 15,000 years ago, Tsushima and the other Japanese islands were completely separated from the continent, which is the way we can see nowadays.  Some animals and plants, which had been left behind in Tsushima, have gone through their own evolution.  The species of the continent, those unique to Tsushima, those that can be seen only in Tsushima within Japan, and those in the Japanese. mainlands, are mixed together.  Tsushima itself looks like a natural park for natural species.
     There are natural features representing each season of Tsushima: "Rhododendron mucronulatum var. ciliatum" (A kind of azalea (reisebay).Genkai Tsutsuji as its common Japanese name. Its English common name could not be found out.It may not have one,if it is the species that inhabits only in Japan.), Indian cabbage white (A kind of butterfly."Pieris(Artogeia) canidia SPARRMAN" as it scientific name), and Snow flower (Fringe tree.Chionanthus retusus as its scientific name.Futatsubadago in Japanese.) in spring; "Lluciolacruciata motschulsky" (A kind of firefly.Genji-botaru as its common Japanese name.Its English common name could not be found out.It may not have one,if it is the species that inhabits only in Japan.), "Hemerocallis hakuunensis Nakai" (A kind of Day-Lily.Hakuun-kisuge as its common Japanese name.Its English common name could not be found out.It may not have one,if it is the species that inhabits only in Japan.) in summer; "P.rufa E.Olivier" (a kind of firefly.Akimado-botaru in Japanese.Its English common name could not be found out.It may not have one,if it is the species that inhabits only in Japan.) and Bluebeard (Blue spirea. Caryopteris incana Miq as its scientific name.  Dangiku as its Japanese common name.) in fall; Camellia Var. japonica Linn (the species of Common camellia that grows wild) in winter.
     Bears, raccoon dogs, foxes, monkeys, jack rabbits, squirrels, newts, and evening cicadas (Tanna japonensis as its scientific name), although they live in the Japanese mainlands,  do not inhabit Tsushima.  Tsushima leopard cat (Felis bengalensis euptilura as its scientific name) is one of the animals representing Tsushima.  It is a cat that grows wild, which inhabits Tsushima and the Asian continent including the Korean Peninsula but does not live in any other part of Japan.  It has vertical stripes between its eye blows, round tops in its ears, and spots on its trunk.  Since it has recently decreased drastically in number, it has been designated as the species that needs to be  protected against extermination according to the Japanese law to protect species in danger of dying out.  The plans for protection and scientific strategies to increase the number have been discussed.
Islands covered with primeval forests
  
     Roughly 90% of the lands are covered with mountains and forests, and flatlands are very few.  Steep and deep 
mountains 200 to 500 m high come near to the coastline.　Mountains such as Mt. Mitake, Mt.Shiratake, and Mt. Taterayama are thickly covered with primeval forests.
Longest rias coast in Japan
     Tsushima as a whole has turned a rias coast due to the repeated upheaval and subsidence.  The length of the submerged coast reaches 915 km and  is the longest of this kind in Japan.  Mountains are on the verge of the coastline.  Steep slopes plunge into the sea.  Cliffs and rocky beaches have been developed.
the longest of this kind in Japan.  Mountains are on the verge of the coastline.  Steep slopes plunge into the sea.  Cliffs and rocky beaches have been developed.
     The Bay of Asoh is a typical example.  It is located in the middle of Tsushima, tearing Tsushima apart into Kamijima and Shimojima.  There are numerous drowned valleys, which have turned inlets and small islands.  Azalea blooms all over there in spring, which colors the bay pink.  Visitors enjoy the scene on the observation platforms and pleasure boats.
     Tsushima, together with Iki, both with beautiful scenes of mountains and coastlines, were designated as the Iki- Tsushima National Park in the year 1968.
Islands of fishery
   Since there are numerous inlets along the coastline, which form natural good harbors, and rich fishery grounds close-by, many fishery vessels visit Tsushima one after another.  In the evening, squid fishing lights illuminate the surface of the sea.   In Asoh Bay, where it is constantly calm, peal farming is popular.  The high quality of Tsushima Shinju (Shinju is the Japanese name for peal) is well known across the country.  The raft used for the farming, which has the shape unique to Tsushima, has become a local character for the bay and Tsushima.  Tsushima Buri,  the wild but not farmed amberjack (yellow tail) caught one by one, not in the fishing net altogether, is regarded as one of the highest grades of the kind.   Buri, the Japanese name for amberjack, has long been the fish characterizing the new year celebration in Japan.
For more information on Tsushima
Go to  the list of web sites on Tsushima.
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