Finding France in Japan / Japan’s Mont-Saint-Michel in Nagasaki Pref. Captivates Tourists

By Kenji Iwaasa

6:00 JST, August 5, 2024

This is the second installment in a series focusing on places and culture in Japan that evoke the atmosphere of France as athletes are now battling it out in the Paris Olympics.

***

Shortly after noon on July 7, the day of the Tanabata festival, a group of tourists began to gather at a bay on the eastern side of Iki Island, a remote island in Nagasaki Prefecture.

They gazed at a small island ahead of them. After a while, an about 200-meter-long path emerged from the sea leading to the island. About 30 minutes later, the path connected the bay and the island, and the tourists walked along it.

The scene was reminiscent of Mont Saint-Michel, a small island in France registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The small island has been called Iki’s Mont-Saint-Michel since 2015 when Uchime Bay was designated as a component of a Japan Heritage site dubbed “Iki, Tsushima, and the Goto Islands — Japan’s Ancient Bridge to Asia.”

Just as France’s island of Mont-Saint-Michel has an abbey, Iki Island has Kojima Shrine with a history of roughly 400 years.

Recently, the shrine has become a popular place for fulfilling love-related wishes.

“This place is so mysterious and beautiful. I feel healed,” said a 38-year-old company employee from Fukuoka.

After visiting Mont-Saint-Michel in 2017, she learned about Kojima Shrine. She chose to visit the shrine on July 7, her birthday.

After praying at the shrine for good health and a good marriage, she walked around the island and enjoyed taking pictures.

The island belongs to the shrine’s parishioners, called ujiko.

The island is fondly known as “kojima-san” or “manju-jima,” according to Kazuhira Suenaga, the head of the ujiko association. However, the stone steps leading up to the shrine are on the verge of collapsing due to the throngs of visitors.

A town council organized by residents crowdfunded for money to repair the approach to the shrine. Construction is scheduled to be completed in time for a festival in October.

“I’m happy that so many people love this shrine,” said Suenaga. “I want to protect it since the shrine is a source of pride in our community.”

There are other tourist areas that remind visitors of Mont-Saint-Michel. One is Itsukushima Shrine’s otorii gate on Miyajima Island in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture.

Hatsukaichi City held a ceremony at the shrine in June to commemorate the 15th anniversary of its tourism and friendship city agreement with Mont-Saint-Michel and hosted a delegation from France.

Japanese triumphal arches

The Arc de Triomphe, a well-known triumphal arch in Paris, was commissioned by Napoleon I to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

Athletes will run near the arch during the marathon at the Paris Olympics.

Arches like the one in Paris were built in Japan to commemorate the 1905 victory in the Russo-Japanese War.

Back then, local volunteers hurriedly constructed wooden Japanese versions of the Arc de Triomphe in Shimbashi, Ueno, Asakusa, Shinagawa and other locations in Tokyo.

“The arches were a popular attraction at the time. Even at that time, people had respect for France,” said Junichi Higuchi, a collector of old postcards and the eighth-generation owner of Benmatsu Sohonten, a long-established bento store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

An arch was also built at the south end of Nihonbashi Bridge and was illuminated at night.

Higuchi has collected more than 30 postcards of Japanese triumphal arches, including those sent back home by French visitors to Japan. He has been posting photos of the postcards on his website and in booklets.

“It is exciting just to imagine the lively atmosphere that existed here more than 100 years ago,” he said.

The triumphal arch in Hamamatsu is one such arch that still exists. The arch was built in 1906 and is designated as a national tangible cultural property.

Measuring about three meters wide and three meters high, the arch was constructed using the sturdy Flemish brick bond, according to the city’s cultural property department.

The names of soldiers who departed for war, those who died in battle and donors are engraved on the base of the arch, which has been preserved for future generations.

Sakae Yamamoto from the Shibukawa Rokusho Shrine behind the arch has visited the Arc de Triomphe in France. Yamamoto said the triumphal arch in Hamamatsu, which has been a familiar sight since childhood, is no less magnificent than the original, even if it is smaller.

Visiting these Japanese tourist attractions should allow visitors to vicariously experience French sightseeing in Japan.