On June 25, 1866, the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan signed a customs and tax treaty with the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands to normalize trade relations, One of the stipulations of this treaty was that eight lighthouses be erected near the approaches to the treaty ports opened for foreign commerce.

(Kannonzaki, Nojimasaki, Kashinozaki, Mikomotojima, Kusaki, Iojima, Cape Sata, and Shionomisaki).

However, due to the Boshin War, work was not begun until after the Meiji restoration.

The new Meiji government brought in foreign advisors to assist in the modernization efforts, one of whom was the British engineer Richard Henry Brunton who specialized in lighthouse design.

The original structure was a octagonal wooden building, and it was to have been the first western-style wooden lighthouse in Japan; however, the ship containing the light mechanism from the United Kingdom sank in the East China Sea en route to Japan, and Brunton was forced to improvise using the lantern from a steam locomotive instead.