JAPANESE COIN-SHAPED SAND ART MYSTERY

On a white sandy beach along the Seto Inland Sea, a giant sand sculp­ture depict­ing an ancient coin emerges from behind a pine forest.

Loc­ated in Koto­hiki Park, "Zenigata Sunae" (coin-shaped sand art) is a major tour­ist des­tin­a­tion in Kan­onji, Kagawa Pre­fec­ture.

The giant coin art has a cir­cum­fer­ence of 345 meters, a major axis of 122 meters and a minor axis of 90 meters. The sand mounds form­ing the char­ac­ters stand over 2 meters high. Des­pite its oval-shaped design, the sculp­ture looks like a per­fect circle when viewed from the obser­va­tion deck at the sum­mit of nearby Mt. Koto­hiki.

The sculp­ture depicts a "Kanei tsuho," a coin that was min­ted from 1636 until around the fall of the Tok­ugawa sho­gun­ate. Kanei refers to the name of the era when the coin began to be min­ted, while tsuho was a widely used cur­rency. Unlike gold or sil­ver coins, Kanei tsuho cir­cu­lated widely among com­mon­ers.

However, many puzzles remain. When was such a big art­work cre­ated? By whom? And for what pur­pose?

The sculp­ture is con­sidered one of Kagawa's mys­ter­ies, as there is no estab­lished the­ory that answers these ques­tions.

To main­tain the sculp­ture, a sand-smooth­ing event is held every spring and autumn, where hun­dreds of volun­teers work to restore the design. This spring the event took place on April 29, and about 400 people par­ti­cip­ated. Instruc­tions for the work were relayed from the obser­va­tion deck via micro­phone and walkie-talkie.

To read the complete article, see:
Mys­tery of coin-shaped sand art in Kagawa Pref. remains to this day (https://www.pressreader.com/japan/the-japan-news-by-the-yomiuri-shimbun/20260612/281668261666196)

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