Tottori Sand Dunes

The Tottori Sand Dunes lie on the coast just north of Tottori city, between the mouth of the Sendai River and the Fukube area. The dune field as a whole extends about 16 kilometres along the shore; the central, protected part near the visitor centre is what most people mean by the name, with a great ridge, the Uma-no-se ('horse's back'), rising to about 47 metres between a hollow and the sea.

The central dunes were designated a Natural Monument in 1955 and lie in San'in Kaigan National Park and the San'in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark. Wind-rippled sand, avalanche-like 'sand curtains' on steep slopes and a seasonal pond called the Oasis attract walkers, photographers and paragliders.

Since the mid-20th century, pine-planting to stop blowing sand and changes in the river's sediment supply have allowed plants to spread over the dunes. Volunteers regularly remove vegetation to keep the open sand landscape.

The sand comes from granite in the Chūgoku Mountains, weathered and carried to the sea by the Sendai River. Waves and currents spread it along the coast, and strong north-westerly winter winds blow it inland, piling it into dunes over tens of thousands of years. Layers of volcanic ash from Daisen and other volcanoes within the dunes record older land surfaces, showing that the dunes formed in several stages.

Dune plants such as beach silvertop, beach morning glory and sand sedge are adapted to shifting sand and salt spray. The spread of introduced and native grasses over the open sand is the main conservation issue.

The dunes inspired the photographer Ueda Shōji, born in Sakaiminato, whose staged figures in the sand in the 1940s–80s became classics of Japanese photography. Farmers on the dunes' edge developed techniques for growing crops in sand, and Tottori is known for rakkyō (Japanese scallions) grown in sandy fields at Fukube.