is a

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

lake located between Tottori and Shimane prefectures in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The lake is enclosed by the Shimane Peninsula to the north and Yumigahama Peninsula to the east. It is the fifth largest lake in surface area in Japan. Nakaumi connects Lake Shinji (宍道湖 ''Shinji-ko'') and the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

, and is surrounded by the municipalities

Matsue is the capital city of Shimane Prefecture, Japan, located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 202,008 (February 1, 2021) following the merger with Higashiizumo from Yatsuka District. Matsue is located ...

, Yasugi, Yonago and

Sakaiminato is a city in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. In 2016, it had an estimated population of 33,888. History An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Sakai as an open port for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom. Sakaiminato was fou ...

. There are two large islands in the lake, Daikon Island (大根島 ''Daikonjima'', literally " radish island") and Eshima Island (江島 ''Eshima'', "inlet island"). There are bridges (like the Eshima Ohashi Bridge) and roads that connect the east and west shores of the lake through the two islands. Nakaumi is a brackish lake because it is connected to the Sea of Japan by a short channel, the

Sakai Channel is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

, and lies so low that the tides reverse the flow of the rivers all the way into Lake Shinji. Nakaumi (中海) literally means "middle sea". Even though Nakaumi is a lake, it was likely named a sea because of its saline water and proximity to the actual sea. In Japanese, the lake is usually referred to simply as Nakaumi, not as Nakaumi-ko (Lake Nakaumi).

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Japan Ramsar sites in Japan Landforms of Tottori Prefecture Landforms of Shimane Prefecture

See also

References