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Setonaikai NP, Hiroshima
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After his ship sank offshore in 1867, Sakamoto Ryoma spent 4 days in Tomonoura negotiating compensation under an alias. In 1989, local residents searching an attic found the long-rumored hideaway where he was said to have stayed.
Tomonoura’s Hōmeishu began in 1659: a sweet liqueur made with 16 herbal ingredients. It became a prized product of Fukuyama Domain; local accounts say it was served to Commodore Perry, and 4 town brewers still make it.
Tomonoura preserves an unusually complete Edo-period harbor system: a 10-m-plus night beacon, tidal loading steps, a breakwater, a boat-watch station and a ship-repair yard. The steps let crews load and unload at high or low tide.
This traditional fishery surrounds spawning sea bream with a 6-boat fleet and a bag net about 1,500 m long and 100 m wide. The two main boats cross and tighten the net like a drawstring—a technique recognized as a Fukuyama folk cultural property.
At Tomonoura’s Otebi fire ritual, worshippers carry blazing torches about 4.5 m long and 150 kg up the steps of Nunakuma Shrine. The fire is part of a purification rite before the shrine’s summer mikoshi procession.
In 1711, Korean envoy Yi Bang-eon praised the view from Fukuzenji’s Taichoro with the inscription “Nitto Daiichikeisho,” meaning “the finest scenic view in Japan.” Six Tomonoura documents, comprising 14 works, later joined UNESCO’s Memory of the World collection.
In 1576, the last shogun of the Muromachi period, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, fled to Tomonoura and tried to restore his government. This short-lived political center is remembered as the “Tomo Bakufu,” or Tomo shogunate.
Eight poems in the ancient Man’yōshū mention Tomonoura. In one, poet Ōtomo no Tabito remembers seeing a sacred juniper with his wife: the tree still stands, he writes, but she has died. A monument to the poem remains by the harbor.
Tomonoura’s Hachisaku horse parade celebrates a child’s birth with white wooden horses on wheels, from tiny models to life-size ones. The Edo-period custom disappeared in the early Showa era, then local residents revived it in 2002; it is now held only here.
Nunakuma Shrine preserves a nationally designated Noh stage designed to be dismantled and carried, rather than built permanently in one place. It is the only surviving portable, assembly-style stage of its kind in Japan; tradition links it to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
For celebrations, Tomonoura serves tai-sōmen: a whole simmered sea bream atop a platter of noodles. The fish is a good-luck symbol, while the long, slender noodles express hopes for lasting ties and a long life.
A 567-piece collection preserves Tomonoura’s blacksmithing tools and products, including anchors and many kinds of ship nails. The forge craft relied on family-based master-and-apprentice work, which continued into the early Showa era.
On nearby Sensui Island, prefectural records describe wave-carved caves whose bases sit about 2–4 m above today’s high-tide level. Their height suggests they formed when the sea stood higher, or before the land rose.
Across the harbor on Sensui Island, the cliffs known as Goshiki-iwa show bands described as green, red, yellow, white and black-purple. The striking colored layers continue for more than 200 m along the coast.
The merchant compound now known as Ota House prospered by brewing Hōmeishu. It also became a stop for 7 court nobles fleeing Kyoto after the 1863 political coup; records show they returned to Tomonoura in 1864.
Tomonoura’s historic district is more than old-looking buildings: its inherited street grid and land divisions remain unusually intact. In 2017, about 8.6 hectares were selected as a nationally important preservation district.
For Tomonoura’s spring Hina festival, families and shopkeepers display heirloom dolls in about 100 homes, stores and temples. Visitors can see everything from Edo-period seven-tier displays to elaborate Meiji-era palace-style dolls.
