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Miyazaki is the capital of Miyazaki Prefecture, on the sunny southeast coast of Kyushu in Japan, where the Ōyodo River meets the Hyūga Sea. Palm-lined avenues, surf beaches and a mild climate give it a southern feel, and every spring professional baseball and soccer teams come here to train.
The area was part of the ancient province of Hyūga, the land where Japanese myth places the early days of Emperor Jimmu before he set out to found the nation. Burial mounds on the hills recall the rulers of the 3rd and 4th centuries, and a merchant town grew by the river in the 16th century. The modern city grew after Miyazaki Prefecture was first created in 1873, and today it is home to about 400,000 people.
Spend a day on Aoshima, a small island ringed by the rocky Ogre's Washboard, and drive the coast road south over Horikiri Pass. Back in town, visit Miyazaki Jingū, Heiwadai Park and the prefectural museums, then head to the pine coast of Seagaia.
Aoshima Island lies just off the coast in southern Miyazaki, a tiny island 860 meters around, linked by Yayoi Bridge and reached on foot at low tide. Its wild palm forest is a Special Natural Monument, and it is ringed by the Ogre's Washboard, long ridges of layered rock exposed by the waves.
Aoshima Shrine sits near the center of Aoshima Island in Miyazaki, an island long revered as sacred ground. It honors Hikohohodemi and his wife Toyotama-hime of the Umisachi and Yamasachi myth, and draws visitors praying for marriage and safe voyages. Only priests could land here until 1737.
Aoshima Subtropical Botanical Garden opened in 1967 on the shore facing Aoshima Island in Miyazaki, to protect and study the island's native palms. A sister garden of the Singapore Botanic Gardens since 1965, it was renewed in 2016, with a great greenhouse of bougainvillea and tropical trees.
Horikiri Pass crosses the coastal hills between Aoshima and Uchiumi in southern Miyazaki, on the old route of National Route 220 opened in the Taishō era. Bypassed by a tunnel in 2008, the pass and the nearby Phoenix roadside station remain a favorite stop for views of the rocky Pacific shore.
Miyazaki Jingū stands in the Jingū district of northern Miyazaki, dedicated to Emperor Jimmu, the legendary first emperor, who tradition says held his palace here before his eastern campaign. Records place its move to the present site in 1197, and it took the name Miyazaki Jingū in 1913.
Heiwadai Park covers 68.8 hectares on a hill in northern Miyazaki, built in 1939 and 1940 to mark the 2,600th year of the imperial line. Its 1940 tower once bore the wartime slogan Hakkō Ichiu, was renamed the Peace Tower after 1945, and remains one of the best-known sights in Miyazaki.
Ikime Kofun Group is a cluster of burial mounds on a terrace above the Ōyodo River in western Miyazaki, built from the late 3rd century and the largest early Kofun-period group in Kyushu. Its biggest keyhole tomb, No. 3, runs 143 meters, and visitors can walk up to the top of it.
Miyazaki Prefectural Museum of Nature and History opened in 1971 near Miyazaki Jingū in Miyazaki, in a building by architect Junzō Sakakura. Its galleries cover the forests, coasts, history and folk life of the prefecture, and old farmhouses moved from the countryside stand in its grounds.
Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum opened in 1995 in the prefectural culture park of Miyazaki, in a building that won architect Shin'ichi Okada the Japan Art Academy Prize. It is known for its collection of the local artist Ei-Q, and also holds works by Picasso, Klee and Magritte.
Phoenix Seagaia Resort stretches along the pine-forested Hitotsuba coast of northern Miyazaki, built as the flagship of a national resort plan and fully opened in 1994. Its hotels, golf courses and convention center have hosted G8 foreign ministers in 2000 and G7 agriculture ministers in 2023.
Miyazaki City Phoenix Zoo opened on 24 March 1971 beside the Seagaia resort in Miyazaki, the first zoo in the prefecture and the first in Japan to keep wild animals together in mixed groups. It is known for its flamingo show, and in 1974 it hatched the first ostrich chick born by incubator in Japan.
Miyazaki Prefectural Office sits on Tachibana-dōri in central Miyazaki, its main building of 1932 the fourth-oldest prefectural head office still in use in Japan. After 2007 it became a sightseeing spot of its own, and by September 2009 it had welcomed more than a million visitors through its halls.
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