West Kagawa · Kan-onjiNo.656★★Open in map →

Zenigata Sunae

— A giant Edo coin raked into a Kagawa beach

localOff the trail — and worth it

A giant Edo-period coin raked into a beach in western Kagawa, drawn as an ellipse so that it reads as a true circle from the hilltop deck above. Free, open at any hour, and lit after dark.

FromTakamatsu Station
~1 hr 30 minJR, then a walk or a short taxi
Get off atKan-onji Station (JR Yosan Line)
From there
Zenigata Sunae

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a well-known sight with a car park and a lit viewing deck, not a secret. The part that gets flattened in the retelling is that the founding story is a legend rather than a record, and both the city and the prefecture pass it on in those terms. What is verifiable is the maintenance. The figure is still on the beach because residents turn out to re-rake it, and they do it every year.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

The Zogahana-iwa Zenigata viewpointNaokijp / CC BY-SA 4.0

Ariake-hama and the pine grovethe beach the figure is drawn on, backed by the park's pine woods
Zenigata Sunae at ground levelthe banked sand up close, 122 metres east to west and 90 north to south
The Zogahana-iwa Zenigata viewpointthe deck on the summit of Kotohiki-yama, the one place the ellipse reads as a circle
Kotohiki Hachimanguthe shrine occupying the same hilltop as the viewing deck
Jinnein and Kanonjipilgrimage temples sixty-eight and sixty-nine, sharing a single precinct beside the park

How to actually get there

Takamatsu Station → Kan-onji Station (JR Yosan Line, Shiokaze or Ishizuchi limited express).
Kan-onji Station → Kotohiki Park (about 20 minutes on foot, or five minutes by taxi).
Kotohiki Park → the Zenigata viewpoint on the summit (up the park road, or the steps from the car park).

JR Yosan Line to Kan-onji: Kan-onji is 56.5 km from Takamatsu on the Yosan Line, and the Shiokaze and Ishizuchi limited expresses run roughly hourly. From the station the park is about 2 km, which is five minutes in a taxi. Allow around an hour and a half in total and the hill is covered as well.
Back to Kan-onji Station: The same limited expresses run back towards Takamatsu, but the evening timetable is thinner than the daytime one. Settle your return train before going up the hill, because the lit sand is the kind of thing that eats an hour without asking. If the walk in took longer than expected, a taxi from the park closes the gap.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The design is the Kan'ei Tsuho, the copper coin that circulated through the Edo period, drawn on the sand of Ariake-hama inside Kotohiki Park. Its outline runs about 345 metres around. Walked at ground level it reads as a set of long, meaningless banks of sand, because it is not drawn as a circle at all. It is stretched into an ellipse so that it corrects itself when seen from the hill. The park around it is a designated national place of scenic beauty, and the pine grove behind the beach belongs to that same park.

How to enjoy it

It is open ground with nothing to pay and no closing time, and it is lit from sunset until 22:00, so an evening visit is a real choice rather than a consolation. The sand is re-raked in spring and again in autumn, and the lines are at their sharpest just after. The climb to the deck is short, but it is a climb, so budget for the hill rather than the distance.

Background & history

Tradition holds that the coin was cut in a single night in 1633, by local people preparing to welcome Ikoma Takatoshi, lord of Marugame, on a tour of his domain. The city and the prefecture both pass that account on in those exact terms, as something told rather than proved. Alongside it runs a second piece of folklore, that whoever looks on the coin will keep their health and never want for money. Neither claim is what has actually kept the figure on the sand.

Before you go

Cash: There is nothing to pay to see the sand, at any hour of any day. The cash worth carrying is for a taxi between the station and the park, and for the community bus if you happen to catch one of its few daily runs.
Good to know: The sand is outdoors and open, but the figure is a drawing in a beach: wind and typhoons scour it, and it is repaired after the damage rather than protected from it. Over the long spring holidays the park's hill drive has been marshalled for traffic in some years, and walking up is the faster choice on those days.
Another way: A community bus from Kan-onji Station stops at Kotohiki Park, but it runs only four times a day, so check it before relying on it. Rental bicycles can be picked up from the tourist information at Taishobashi Plaza near the station. Driving, park at the public lot by the playground or at the Ariake ground and take the steps, about fifteen minutes up to the deck.
After you get off: Kan-onji Station is the rail end of the trip. The prefecture gives the park as about twenty minutes on foot from the station. The viewpoint sits above that again, reached either by the park road or by the steps.