Cape Toi: Miyazaki’s Wild Horses by the Sea

Miyazaki · Kushima · Wild Horses

By Nobu · Updated June 2026 · Verified against Miyazaki & Kushima tourism sources

Cape Toi, at the southern tip of Miyazaki, is one of the only places in Japan where you can watch wild horses roam free against the sea. Around a hundred Misaki horses — a native breed protected as a National Natural Monument, descended from animals a feudal domain pastured here in the Edo period — graze the clifftop grassland. You pass through the “Komadome gate,” pay a small fee that goes toward protecting them, and then it’s just you, the horses and the Pacific. Bring a car: the cape is large, and the horses set the pace.

The wild horses of Cape Toi

The Misaki horses have been here a long time. They descend from horses the Takanabe domain set out to pasture on the cape in the Edo period, and they’ve lived semi-wild ever since — never stabled, foaling and grazing on the open grassland. Today there are around a hundred of them, and the herd is protected as a National Natural Monument. You reach their world through the Komadome gate at the cape entrance, where you pay a small fee toward their conservation; past it, the road runs through open hills where horses graze, cross the tarmac and ignore the cars entirely.

They’re easiest to find around the Komatsugaoka grassland, though “wild” means no guarantees — some visitors meet a whole herd, others a scattered few. Spring, roughly April into May, is foaling season, so that’s the time to catch the foals.

Watching them the right way

These are genuinely wild animals and a protected cultural treasure, so the rules matter — for the horses and for you.

Beyond the horses

At the very tip stands the Toi Misaki lighthouse, one of only a handful in Japan you can actually climb — the gallery gives a sweeping view over the cape and the sea. It costs ¥300 for adults to go up (free for younger children), and it opens mornings and afternoons with a midday break, so check the current hours before you make the drive out. The cape is also home to a wild colony of sago palms (sotetsu), itself a protected natural monument, which adds to the slightly subtropical, end-of-Japan feel of the place.

When & how to visit

Pay the small conservation fee at the Komadome gate on the way in. There’s no railway to the cape; Kushima’s community “Yoka Bus” reaches the area (a day pass is good value), but the practical way to see Cape Toi is to drive — it’s a fair distance south of Miyazaki city, and you’ll want a car to cover the grassland, the lighthouse and the lookouts. Spring and autumn are kindest for weather; spring also brings the foals.

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