Kanmon Straits
Sign in to saveAlso known as Straits of Shimonoseki, Shimonoseki Straits, Anato Straits, Bakan Straits
the stretch of water separating the islands Honshu and Kyushu in Japan
Key facts
- Type
- Strait
- Islands
- Honshu Kyushu
via Wikipedia infobox
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Kanmon Straits (関門海峡, Kanmon-kaikyō) or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating Honshu and Kyushu, two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshu side of the strait is Shimonoseki (下関, which contributed "Kan" (関) to the name of the strait) and on the Kyushu side is Kitakyushu, whose former city and present ward, Moji (門司), gave the strait its "mon" (門). The straits silt up at the rate of about 15 centimetres per annum, and dredging has made it possible to build the Kitakyushu Airport at low cost.
Western maps from the 19th century also refer to this waterway as the Straits of Van der Capellen.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kanmon Straits” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.