Miyajima tide times:
the float is nearly
every day. The walk
is not.
The Great Torii is a different object at every tide height, and the most common Miyajima disappointment is arriving at the wrong one. Above 250cm it appears to float — every day from August to December 2026 had a high tide above that line. Below 100cm you walk out across the sand and stand under it — and the day's low fell below 100cm between 06:00 and midnight on only 87 of those 153 days.
Do both when your date allows. The two states are about six hours apart, so on a day with a deep low a full island day gets you the floating gate and the walk out to it. If you can only have one, take the high tide: above 250cm the torii floats and the shrine's corridors stand over water, and every day from August to December 2026 reached it. The walk is the scarce one — in November 2026 the day's low fell below 100cm between 06:00 and midnight on only 9 of 30 days. Look your date up in the Miyajima Tourist Association's own table, which marks both windows for you.
What you get at every tide height
Time it rightRead your date in the official table, find the height for the hour you would arrive, and match it to a band below. The 100cm and 250cm thresholds are printed on the Miyajima Tourist Association's own tide table — they are not our estimate. One warning that decides whether the numbers mean anything: the association's table is the Hiroshima Port table (the association notes that Miyajima's own tide runs slightly earlier), so a generic tide app on a different station or datum returns figures that look similar and are not comparable. Use the association's table.
Look your date up in the official table below, then type the height for the hour you would arrive.
The photograph. The 16m gate stands in open water and appears to float, and at the top of the range small boats run out to it. This is the image every Hiroshima article uses.
| Tide height | What you get | The shrine corridor | Best for | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 100 cm WALK OUT | The sand is exposed and you can walk out to the Great Torii, stand under it and touch the legs. Between 100 and about 120cm you can get close with wet feet; for dry shoes and a wide sand flat you want about 40cm or lower. This is tidal flat, not beach. | Sits over wet sand. The corridors still work as architecture, but there is no reflection and no water underneath. | Families, anyone who wants to be photographed under the gate, and second visits. | DEPENDS |
| 100–250 cm NEITHER | The band nobody warns you about. Too much water to walk out, too little to float anything — wet sand, shallow puddles, no reflection, and a gate you can neither reach nor photograph properly. | Water is under part of the structure at best. The famous mirror-image shot is not available at any point in this range. | Nobody. If your only possible arrival lands here, either shift the sailing by two hours or plan the day around Mount Misen and Daisho-in instead. | SKIP |
| Over 250 cm IT FLOATS | The photograph. The 16m gate stands in open water and appears to float, and at the top of the range small boats run out to it. This is the image every Hiroshima article uses. | The shrine's corridors and stage stand over water — which is the entire architectural point of the building, and the reason it is a UNESCO site. | First-time visitors, photographers, and anyone who has one shot at the island. | WORTH IT |
The Miyajima Tourist Association publishes the island's own table by date, in centimetres, hour by hour, and marks the walk and float windows for you — use it rather than a generic tide app, because its heights are the Hiroshima Port table and are not interchangeable with figures from another station. The mechanism worth understanding: 250cm sits below a typical high, so the float clears for hours on any day; 100cm sits near a typical low, so on a neap tide the water may never drop that far. Neaps kill the walk. They never kill the float.
What the 2026 tide table actually allows
Our own countWe read every day from August to December 2026 off the Tourist Association's monthly tables (Hiroshima Port). Counts are of the day's printed low tides; nobody else publishes this, and it reverses the advice most Miyajima articles give.
Book the ferry around the tide, not the other way round
How to actually use thisMiyajima runs on the tide, not the clock. Above 250cm the Great Torii appears to float and the shrine's corridors stand over water; below 100cm you can walk out across the sand to the gate's legs. Those are the Miyajima Tourist Association's own published thresholds, read against its own tide table — which is the Hiroshima Port table, with Miyajima running slightly earlier. A generic tide app uses a different reference point, so its numbers look similar and are not comparable. Check the official table before you book the ferry, not after.
The mechanics are simple. Open the tide table, find your date, and read across the hours. You are looking for a block above 250cm or below 100cm, and then you plan the ferry to land inside it. Sailings run every 15 minutes or so from Miyajimaguchi and the crossing takes 10 minutes, so a shift of two hours costs you nothing but scheduling — the routes and fares are here.
The verdict to plan around: do both on the same day when your date allows. In August 2026 the low fell below 100cm in daytime or evening on 26 of 31 days, and every day floated at high water; in November it was 9 of 30. That is a six-hour island day, which is what Miyajima deserves anyway: shrine and torii at high water, Daisho-in and Mount Misen in the middle, and the walk out to the gate's legs when the water has gone. Almost nobody plans it that way and it is the best version of the day.
Check for the dead stretches. In 2026 the tide never dropped below 100cm on 20–24 August — the lows were 108, 125, 137, 129 and 109cm. A visitor on any of those days could not walk to the torii at all, whatever time they took the ferry, and no article we can find warned them. Neap tides do this every few weeks, because 100cm sits near a typical low: look your own date up.
The classic disappointment runs the other way too. A visitor lands at 11:00 on a 60cm tide expecting the floating gate from the brochure, finds it standing on mud behind a crowd of people walking out to it, takes a picture that looks like nothing, and leaves. Five minutes with the tide table prevents it.
One more thing the tide does not control: the illumination. The Great Torii and the shrine exterior come on 30 minutes after sunset and stay lit until 23:00, year-round — so the start drifts from about 19:30 at midsummer to about 17:35 in December, and you should look up sunset for your date. You cannot go inside the shrine during the illumination (the Tourist Association says so, and notes the lights are occasionally off for shrine events). The lit view is from outside: the Omotesandō shore, Mikasanohama, or a boat. Any article implying an evening stroll through the corridors is wrong. The last JR ferry off the island is 22:14, so you can see it and leave — but the empty early morning still needs an island bed.
Rather book it?Miyajima guided walking tour with ferry on GetYourGuide ↗
Three boats, and the one that goes under the gate
On the waterTwo of these are tide-dependent in opposite directions, which is the detail that makes them worth a table.
| Boat | Price | When | Notes | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rokaibune — the oared boat under the torii | ¥1,500 adult · ¥500 child | Around high tide only, roughly 10:00–15:00, two to three hours a day; suspended in bad weather and extreme heat or cold | 20–30 minutes, about every 30 minutes, no reservations — queue on the day. Child fare is age 4 to elementary. ⚠ Some sites still print ¥1,000; that figure is stale | WORTH IT |
| Aqua Net night cruise (大鳥居遊覧船) | ¥2,000 adult · ¥1,000 child | Six sailings 17:55–21:15 | About 25 minutes from Miyajima Pier 3. Book at least 2 hours ahead, cash only — and if nobody has booked by 17:00 the day before, that evening does not sail. The best way to see the illumination | WORTH IT |
| World Heritage Sea Route — Peace Park to Miyajima | ¥2,400 one way · ¥4,400 return, + ¥100 visitor tax | Daily, about 45 minutes; some sailings cancelled or re-routed around spring tides | Book online in busy periods; same-day tickets at the pier if seats remain. Covered by no pass. Compare with ¥540 by tram and ferry | DEPENDS |
The paradox worth planning around: the rokaibune needs a high tide, so it runs at exactly the hours you cannot walk out to the gate. If both matter to you, take the boat under the torii at high water and come back for the walk six hours later — which is the same argument as doing both states in one day.
High tide or low tide — what each one costs you
Head to headIf your schedule only allows one, this is the trade.
| High tide (above ~250cm) | Low tide (below ~100cm) | |
|---|---|---|
| The torii | Appears to float in open water | Stands on exposed sand; you walk out to it |
| The photograph | The classic shot, with reflection | Poor — a gate on mud with people around the legs |
| The shrine corridors | Over water, as designed | Over wet sand |
| Can you touch the gate? | No | Yes — you can stand under all 16m of it |
| Crowds at the gate | Concentrated on the shrine boardwalk | Spread across the flats, but everyone walks out |
| Footwear | Anything | Shoes you can rinse — it is tidal mud |
| Best for | First visit, photographers, one-shot itineraries | Families, repeat visits, anyone who wants the novelty |
| Verdict | WORTH IT | DEPENDS |
If you can only pick one, pick high tide. The floating gate is what you came for; walking out to it is the better story but the weaker photograph, and it is available on most days at some point.
When the island is busy, whatever the tide is doing
Hour by hourTide and crowd are separate problems. Even a perfect 280cm tide is a queue at 11:00. This is a crowd estimate, not a timetable.
Independent early arrivals. Still comfortable, and the light is good on the gate.
Timing the island
Plan your visitIt is a different day.
Nothing above the waterline cares about the tide. Mount Misen, Daisho-in, Momijidani and the food street are all unaffected, and a 150cm arrival is a perfectly good excuse to spend the morning at 535m instead of on the boardwalk. Guided island walks and Misen hikes run whatever the water is doing — we do not publish their prices or ratings here because we could not verify them, so check the listing.
See Misen and island toursTide questions people actually type
Straight answersWhat is the best tide for Miyajima?
Above 250cm for the floating torii, below 100cm to walk out to it — and on a deep-low day you can have both, six hours apart. If you only get one, take the high tide: every day from August to December 2026 floated, while the day's low fell below 100cm between 06:00 and midnight on only 87 of those 153 days.
What time is high tide at Miyajima today?
It moves by roughly 50 minutes a day, so no fixed answer holds. Use the Miyajima Tourist Association's own table, which gives the day's heights in centimetres hour by hour and marks the walk and float windows. Do not substitute a generic tide app: the association's heights are the Hiroshima Port table, and figures from another station or datum are not comparable.
Can you walk to the torii gate at low tide?
Yes, below 100cm — but not on every date. Between 100 and about 120cm you can get close with wet feet; for dry shoes and a wide sand flat you want about 40cm or lower. It takes about 5 minutes each way, it is free, and there is no time limit beyond the returning water. Wear shoes you can rinse: it is mud in places, with oyster shells.
Is high tide or low tide better for photos?
High tide, decisively. Above 250cm you get the gate in open water with a reflection; below 100cm you get a 16m wooden structure standing on brown flats with 200 people walking around its legs. The best light is early morning or the illumination after sunset.
How long do the tides take to change at Miyajima?
About 6 hours between the useful states, which is the standard semi-diurnal cycle. A visitor landing at 09:00 on a 90cm tide can be looking at a floating gate by about 15:00. The float clears every day, because 250cm sits below a typical high; it is the 100cm walk threshold that fails on neap tides, when the range is smallest.
Can I see the torii lit up at night?
Yes. The illumination comes on 30 minutes after sunset and runs to 23:00 year-round, so the start drifts from about 19:30 at midsummer to about 17:35 in December — look up sunset for your date. You cannot enter the shrine during it: the lit view is from the Omotesandō shore, Mikasanohama or a boat. The last JR ferry off the island is 22:14.
Is Miyajima worth visiting at low tide?
Yes — but plan a different day. Daisho-in, Mount Misen, Momijidani and the food street do not care about the water, and walking under the gate is a genuine experience. What you lose is the one photograph, and you should know that before you spend ¥500 on the return ferry rather than after.
Where do the 100cm and 250cm thresholds come from?
They are printed on the Miyajima Tourist Association's own tide table and its guide to reading it — they are not our estimate. The thing that matters alongside them is the station: the association's heights are the Hiroshima Port table, and it notes Miyajima's own tide runs slightly earlier. Use the association's table, not a generic app.
Are there days when you cannot walk to the torii at all?
Yes, and this is the warning almost nobody publishes. In 2026 the tide never dropped below 100cm on 20–24 August — lows of 108, 125, 137, 129 and 109cm — so a visitor on 21 August could not make the walk whatever time they sailed. Neap tides do this every few weeks; in November 2026 the low fell below 100cm between 06:00 and midnight on only 9 of 30 days.
Can I take a boat under the torii gate?
Yes — the rokaibune, an oared boat that passes beneath the gate, is ¥1,500 for adults and ¥500 for children aged 4 to elementary school, runs 20–30 minutes around high tide only, roughly between 10:00 and 15:00, with no reservations, and stops in bad weather. Ignore the ¥1,000 figure still ranking on other sites. The paradox: it needs the high tide, so it runs exactly when you cannot walk out.
Sources
Where these facts come from- Miyajima Tourist Association — how to read the tide table, 100cm and 250cm (Japanese) miyajima.or.jp
- Miyajima Tourist Association — monthly tide table, August 2026 (Japanese) miyajima.or.jp
- Miyajima Tourist Association — tide info by date miyajima.or.jp
- Miyajima Tourist Association — illumination (Japanese) miyajima.or.jp
- Miyajima Yūran Kankō — rokaibune fares and operation (Japanese) miyajimayuran.com
- Aqua Net Hiroshima — Ōtorii night cruise (Japanese) aqua-net-h.co.jp
The prices, dates and rules on this page that come from these sources were checked against them on . Operators change prices without notice — the official page wins if it disagrees with us. Spotted something out of date? Tell us — it gets fixed.