The Tottori Sand Dunes

The sand comes from the Chūgoku mountains: the Sendai river carries it to the sea, currents bring it back and winter wind piles it into ridges up to fifty metres high. The ripple patterns, fūmon, redraw themselves after every gust. The dunes shrank through the twentieth century as forests were planted; grasses are now pulled up to hold them. A nearby museum shows monumental sculptures carved from this sand each year by international artists, then destroyed at the end of the season.