TerravelJapan · Asia
Tsushima Island
A fractured island kingdom where canals carved through stone created three distinct worlds, suspended between two nations.
Tsushima floats in the straits between Kyushu and Korea, a threshold place where currents and histories collide. What was once a single landmass transformed through human intervention: first in 1671, then again in 1900, when deliberate canals split the island into three distinct parts. North and South Tsushima emerged from these cuts, forever changed.
Today, Tsushima is far more than its main islands. Over a hundred smaller islands scatter across the archipelago like scattered thoughts, each with its own character. Administratively bound to Nagasaki Prefecture, this fragmented realm represents something rare: a landscape physically rewritten by human hands, yet retaining profound natural beauty and strategic significance.
The canals that divided Tsushima were driven through isthmuses to create the three-part island configuration that persists today.
Test yourself
Which Asian island was deliberately split into three separate parts by canals carved through isthmuses in 1671 and 1900?
Tsushima Island, Japan, was physically divided by human-engineered canals that cut through isthmuses, creating North Tsushima, South Tsushima, and a third section—a rare example of landscape transformation through deliberate waterway construction.
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