Saga Scenery: The Black Pines of Nijinomatsubara

Nijinomatsubara

The tree-lined road through Nijinomatsubara makes for a pleasant drive.

The pine forest Nijinomatsubara stretches along the Karatsu coast in Saga Prefecture. Designated a national site of scenic beauty, it ranks with Mihonomatsubara in Shizuoka Prefecture and Kehinomatsubara in Fukui Prefecture as one of Japan’s three major scenic pine groves. The trees are said to date from the seventeenth century when the first lord of the Karatsu domain, Terazawa Hirotaka, planted black pines along the dunes as protection against wind and high tides. Today the grove of pines forms a long, verdant arc along the coast, stretching 4.5 kilometers and measuring roughly 500 meters in width. Prefectural Route 347 provides a scenic drive through the black pine forest.

Access: Nijinomatubara Station on the JR Chikuhi Line

Website: Saga, Japan Official Travel Guide, Saga Trip Genius (Nijinomatsubara)

(Banner photo: The fabled one million trees of Nijinomatsubara. Information courtesy of the Saga Prefectural Tourism Federation.)