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The floating torii gate at Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima, near Hiroshima is one of Japan’s most beautiful sights – but, if you time your visit wrong, it might not look like you’re expecting. So, how do you find out when to visit – and is it still worth going to Miyajima at low-tide?
On my first trip to Hiroshima, I went for the day from Osaka. I diligently checked the tide times and realised that, I couldn’t get to Hiroshima and make to Miyajima, and get back to Osaka for beer o’clock in the evening and make a high tide in Miyajima. I decided not to go.
Fast forward about 10 years. this time, not only did I go to Miyajima, I stayed overnight. This meant I got to see the floating torii gate at high tide, low tide and somewhere in between. Which means, I have pictures of all three – and looking at them is the best way to decide when you want to visit.
Article by Helen Foster. Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
11.45 AM: Low Tide
I arrived in Miyajima on a Sunday around lunchtime. as you can see the tide was very low. The benefit of this, you can walk out towards the tori gate and even stand right underneath it if you want to. This gives you the chance to see quite how immense it is, which doesn’t really come across when you see it far away.
There are two downsides to this. You don’t get that iconic floating photo – and, you also get quite a lot of other people in your pictures.
It’s not impossible to remove them though, you just have to be a bit strategic with your cropping – and your use of the erase button (ahem). You might even want to leave one or two in for scale.
3.10 PM: Mid Tide
In between these two pictures, I went and visiting some of Miyajima’s other sites including the fantastic Daishoin temple with it’s many carved statues and the simple, but stunning, wooden hall at Hokoku-jinja. I also had a delcious lunch of fried Miyajima oysters and curry rice.
If you stay on Miyajima you’ll walk past the Itsukushima Shrine a lot and, probably take a picture every time – and this one was taken between leaving my lunch spot and heading to my hotel Sakuraya to check in.
This was at mid tide.
As you can see, the gate’s base is now pretty covered. It doesn’t quite look like it’s floating – that happens when you can no longer see the black base of the red gates, but it’s still very calm and beautiful
5.10pm: Almost High Tide
A short nap later and it’s time to come back out and explore. By this time most of the crowds on Miyajima have headed home making it the perfect time to visit Itsukushima Shrine itself – especially as, on this day at least, this also coincides with almost the full tide.
When the tide is in, the whole of Itsukushima Shrine looks as if it’s surrounded by water – if it’s a very high tide it can even lap up under the planks.
The queue that normally forms for the famous picture by the lantern is only three people deep, and, you can wander around the shrine itself.
The exact closing time of the shrine depends on the time of year. It’s open until 6pm in from March 1 to October 14, 5.30pm during January/February and mid October to December 1st. It closes at 5pm in December. If you’re staying on the island, it opens at 6.30am year round.
5.40PM. Night Falls
The full high tide when I was there was once night had fallen – a bit after these photos were taken, but, I decided that the extra few inches that the water might rise weren’t needed once it was dark.
It looked like it was floating to me!
7.37AM: Mid Tide Again
One last chance to see the torii gate before leaving the island, and, one of Miyajima’s most famous residents has come to visit.
At this point, the early morning high tide was high enough that you can just see the black base of the shrine before it starts to rise and receed again as the day goes on.
When Is It Best to Visit the Floating Torii?
As you can see, you don’t have to time your visit for the exact moment of high tide to get pretty pictures of the gate in the water – you just need to avoid low tide.
For that reason I’d say you’ll want to time your visit about 1-2 hours either side of high tide. The closer to high tide you can get the more covered the base of the torii will be and the more it appears to float.
If you’re here at low tide and want to walk to the torii gate the tide needs to be below 100cm.
If you want to see Itsukushima Shrine itself completely surrounded by water, and looking as if it’s floating then the high tide needs to be over 250cm. High tides in Miyajima can range from 235 cm to more than 340cm.
As you can see above, it didn’t quite make it when I was there – even though the water was pretty high on the torii gate.
So Is It Worth Visiting at Low Tide?
If your goal for visiting is to get the famous floating gate or shrine picture, and you can only get here at low tide, then no. I would spend your time doing something else in Hiroshima.
However, there is still a lot to do on Miyajima that makes it worth a visit in it’s own right, so, if you’re not too bothered about getting the perfect floating gate picture, spend a few hours here and you’ll see a beautiful island – and, probably get at least one okay image of the gate.
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How Many High Tides are There a Day?
Normally there are two, around twelve hours apart most days – but not always. Miyajima can have days with just one high and low tide – something called a diurnal tide.
If you’re coming on one of these days, then you’ll want to check the timings carefully if you want to see the gate and shrine ‘float’ as you’ll only have one opportunity. The good news is that opportunity is likely to be around 12.30 on each of these days which at least makes planning a bit easier.
My advice, if you’re arriving on one of these days and only have one day to do both the shrine and the Peace Park is to come to Miyajima first, see the gate and the deer, and then head over to the Peace Park. If you do it the other way around you might miss high tide. Although do see our note about how tides might affect the ferries
Dates in 2025 With Only One High Tide
June: 14 and 28. July: 14 and 28
August: 12 and 27. September: 12 and 27
October: 11 and 27. November: 10 and 25
December: 9 and 24
What Time is High Tide?
It varies by the date – well, actually it varies by the position of the earth, the moon and the sun but that’s a level of science beyond my pay grade, but what that means is, there’s no one time to tell you to arrive on the island.
Some days you could get here mid-morning and be greeted by the perfect floating torii – other days, you’ll only see it at either 3am to 6pm.
You also can’t use another year’s tables to workout the timings. The pictures above were taken on October 27th and 28th 2024 – but, according to this year’s tide tables on October 27th 2025, there is only one high tide and it’s at 12.52 pm. At that time last year, it was low tide.
For that reason, as soon you start planning when you might want to go to Hiroshima, I’d suggest looking at some tide tables so you can plan the best day and time to visit.
You’ll find the Miyajima tide times here.
Do the Tide Times Affect the Ferries?
The JW West ferry (below) that runs from Miyajimaguchi Ferry Terminal will run no matter what. This service departs every 15 minutes and gets to Miyajima 10 minutes later. It runs regularly from 7am to 7pm. Before and after this services are a little less frequent so check the timetable for exact departure times.
However the Aquanet ferry that runs from the Peace Park to Miyajima and back can be affected by the tides.
Specifically it won’t run if the tides along the Hiroshima river are too high as it means it can’t pass under the bridges en route – and it also won’t run if the tide is too low as the water might not be deep enough.
If you want to take this ferry, check the schedule in advance to make sure they are likely to be running when you need to take them. They know in advance when there is likely to be a problem and block this out on their website.
So, that’s what I think you need to know about visiting Miyajima at low tide, and how to plan your visit if you would prefer to visit at high tide.
