S P O T ／ SPOT-048
Ryūgū Cave (Dragon Palace Cave — Heart-Shaped Skylight)
竜宮窟りゅうぐうくつ
The Ryūgū Cave at Irōzaki on the Izu Peninsula is a sea cave whose ceiling collapsed at some point in the geological past, creating an opening that — viewed from inside the cave, looking up at the sky — forms a near-perfect heart shape. This is entirely unplanned. The heart is the product of coastal erosion removing rock in a configuration that no designer could have contrived, which is part of why it became an Instagram phenomenon before Instagram was a word: the image of a heart-shaped window to blue sky, framed by dark volcanic cave walls, with the sound of the Pacific moving through the cave's acoustic space, has an involuntary emotional impact regardless of one's cynicism about heart-shaped tourist traps. At low tide, a sand beach is accessible at the cave's base. The cave's name — Dragon Palace — comes from the Urashima Tarō folk legend, Japan's version of the time-dilating underwater paradise story, which is an appropriately surreal mythological frame for a geological accident this pretty.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01A collapsed sea-cave ceiling producing a heart-shaped sky window — not designed, not manufactured, not imagined by anyone: purely accidental and genuinely striking
- 02The acoustic space of the cave with Pacific Ocean waves resonating through it creates a sensory experience that photographs cannot reproduce
- 03At low tide, the sand at the cave's base is accessible — close-up contact with an otherwise aerial phenomenon
A C C E S S ／ M E T A
Essentials
- Location
- Shizuoka Prefecture Minami-Izu Town, Kamo District
- Address
- 静岡県賀茂郡南伊豆町田牛
- Fee
- 無料
- Hours
- 24時間（海の状況による）
- Status
- 現存
- Nearest
- 伊豆急行「伊豆急下田駅」
- Parking
- あり・10台・500円（夏季シーズン中は1,500円）
- Time
- 30〜60分