Jōgashima Lighthouse

Jōgashima Lighthouse

城ヶ島灯台

Jōgashima Lighthouse
Location Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Coordinates 35°08′06″N 139°36′40″E / 35.13500°N 139.61111°E
Year first lit 1870, 1925
Automated yes
Foundation Concrete
Construction Concrete
Tower shape Round
Height 11.5 metres (38 ft)
Focal height 30.1 metres (99 ft)
Original lens 4th order Fresnel
Intensity 400,000 candela
Range 28 kilometers (white)
Characteristic Fl W 15s

Jōgashima Lighthouse (城ヶ島灯台 Jōgashima tōdai) is a lighthouse located on the island of Jōgashima (in Japanese: 城ヶ島) in the city of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, off the southernmost and western tip of Miura Peninsula, facing Sagami Bay. It is the fourth oldest western style lighthouse to be built in Japan, and the 2nd oldest surviving to the present day.

The Jōgashima Lighthouse was one of eight lighthouses built in Japan under the provisions of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858, signed by the Bakumatsu period Tokugawa Shogunate. The lighthouse was designed and constructed by expatriate French engineer Léonce Verny. Verny constructed another three lighthouses around Tokyo Bay, and was also the engineer who built the nearby Yokosuka Naval Arsenal during his career in Japan.

The lighthouse on top of Jōgashima (seen here at the center of the photograph, from Misaki harbour).

The Jōgashima Lighthouse was completed on September 8, 1870 after the Meiji Restoration, and was originally built of brick. The original structure was destroyed during the Great Kanto Earthquake on September 1, 1923 and was replaced with the current reinforced-concrete round structure on August 1, 1925. In 1928, its light source was changed from acetylene to electric, greatly increasing its visibility. The lighthouse has been unmanned since 1991. It is currently maintained by the Japan Coast Guard.

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