The Tobishima Kaido Islands
A compact range of small, mountainous islands located near the center of the Seto Inland Sea, the Tobishima Kaido Islands are a magical microcosm of the Setouchi—its unique physical beauty, food culture, history, and the way of life of the amabito, or “sea people.” It’s as if the islands have been frozen in time, but reawaken with life when you visit, which includes a growing number of charming new cafes, restaurants, and places to stay.
The islands start just offshore from the base of Mt. Noro (the second largest mountain in the sea) near Japan’s main naval port at Kure City on the Honshu Mainland and extend in an arc southward into the sea. Since 2000, seven of the islands are connected to each other and to the Honshu Mainland by the Tobishima Kaido series of bridges and roadways, which have created an incredibly scenic route along the islands’ coasts, through their highlands, and dramatically across the waters in between. Depending on where you are on the islands, you can enjoy a kaleidoscope of views of the Seto Inland Sea. The sea appearing as sheltered bays filled with small fishing boats, as deep lakes set amidst rugged mountains, and as a wide-open, shining sea dotted with islets in the far-off distance.
People have lived on the Tobishima Kaido islands for at least 2,000 years, and most likely much longer, given the artifacts found from around that time of an already advanced society. Small and rugged, the islands have little arable land and few basins of fresh water with which to grow crops and raise animals. Instead, the islanders have always been sea people, and the sea has been their fields and pastures, rich with seafoods due to the islands’ advantageous geography. Located at one of the narrowest stretches of the Seto Inland Sea, the surrounding waters are saturated with nutrient-rich fresh water runoff from the high mountains on Honshu Island to the north and Shikoku Island to the south. The steep rocky coasts of the islands and narrow straits between them trap and circulate these nutrients, providing the phytoplankton that fish feed on and fertilizing the sea grasses and seagrass and seaweed beds in which fish and shellfish breed and live.
The boat dock and shop of Shiosai no Yakata run by fisherman Mr. Kaneda and his wife on the north side of Kami Kamagari Island. There you can buy fresh seafood, some of the best foraged wild hijiki seaweed on the islands, and, also, hire Mr. Kaneda to take you out on a morning fishing cruise.
Hon’dawara seaweed used to make Amabito No Moshio seaweed salt on Kami Kamagari Island.
In fact, the largest natural seaweed beds in the Seto Inland Sea lie just offshore of the Tobishima Kaido Islands, roughly 4,000 hectares of arame, tamamo, garamo, wakame, tengusa, amamo, aosa, and hijiki, among others. For thousands of years, these sea vegetables have provided the islanders with the carbohydrates and dietary fiber otherwise provided by land vegetables. In addition, they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and satisfyingly delicious umami, and have been traditionally used by the islanders in cooking in a variety of ways. Tengusa is used to make kanten (agar), a gelling agent that is, in turn, used to make a jelly-life tofu. Hijiki is a sea vegetable with a tender, chewy texture and a dense, rich flavor. It is so versatile it can be used in almost any type of dish and is a staple of the local diet. Its harvesting and processing are one of the islands’ main sources of revenue.
Sea vegetables were also used to create an ancient form of salt called moshio, or seaweed salt, by boiling burnt seaweed ashes and seawater together. In 1998, the making of this type of seaweed salt was revived at a small saltworks on at Kenmin no Hama Beach on Kami Kamagari Island. Called Amabito no Moshio (the seaweed salt of the sea people), it has a mild, rounded, slightly sweet taste and the added benefits of vitamins, minerals, and umami deliciousness provided by the seaweed.
In 1984, an archeological dig along Kenmin no Hama Beach on Kami Kamagari Island, located in the middle of the Tobishima Kaido Island chain, found pottery shards which revealed that the people living there made moshio seaweed salt 1,600 years ago.
Because of their strategic location about a third of the way into the Seto Inland Sea from the west, at one of its calmest, as well as narrowest, stretches, the Tobishima Kaido Islands have long been a key port of call for ships crossing the sea. Since ancient times this has included Chinese, Korean, and Ryukyuan emissaries, making their way to Japan’s capital at Kyoto at the eastern end of the sea and, later on, to Edo-Tokyo in the north of the country. In the small port town of Sannose on Shimo Kamagari Island, the first island reached by bridge from Kure, the Shoto-en Museum complex is a collection of old buildings that were once used to house these foreign missions and currently contain exhibitions of the food and utensils used to lavishly entertain these ambassadors.
Later on, these emissaries were joined by Portuguese and Dutch traders. To accommodate them, yet keep them isolated, the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868) established the port town of Mitarai in the inner harbor of Osaki Shimoijima Island at the eastern end of the Tobishima Kaido Islands in 1666. Here, the powerful feudal daimyo lords of western Japan set up trading houses to trade with the foreign merchants. Around them grew up a rowdy pleasure district of geisha o-chaya teahouses and oiran houses of prostitution in the backrooms of which Japan’s western feudal lords clandestinely and successfully plotted the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868.
The Shoto-en Museum complex in the old port town of Sannose on Shimo Kamagari Island is a collection of old buildings that were once used to house foreign missions that traveled across the Seto Inland Sea to Japan’s capitals at Kyoto and later Edo-Tokyo. Today, they contain exhibitions of the food and utensils used to lavishly entertain these ambassadors.
The Edo era (1603-1868) trading port of Mitarai on Osaki Shimojima Island is one of two locations in Hiroshima prefecture designated as a “Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings” by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The town is a veritable museum of some of the best-preserved historical architecture found anywhere in Japan.
Lemons & Mikan Oranges
When steamships replaced sailing vessels in the latter half of the 19th century, the calm, sheltered harbor of Mitarai was no longer needed. Trading ships coming from the south and west could traverse the length of the sea to the region’s great commercial center of Osaka without stopping. By then, however, the foreign traders had introduced the lemon to Osaki Shimojima in 1898—the first lemons to be grown in Japan.
Lemons thrived on Osaki Shimojima because of its temperate climate, calm air, light rainfall, good mountain drainage, and strong sunlight from the sky above and reflecting off of the sea below. Farmers built rows of ishizumi stone terraces along the slopes of the mountains on which to grow lemons, hauling rocks up from the shore by hand and cart. These terraces not only maximized the useable land but also improved the lemon orchards’ growing conditions. The stones reflected additional light back onto the orchards and also helped heat them during cool weather. In addition, the terraces improved drainage while conserving the island’s precious rainfall by channeling it in cascades down the tiers of the terraces.
Lemon orchards quickly spread to the neighboring islands and, over time, the lemons became sweeter and milder tasting through a combination of natural mutation, hybridization, farming techniques, and the effects of the soil and climate of the region. However, the Setouchi Lemon, as the region’s lemons came to be known, are no less filled with citric acid. Their extra sweetness helps to mask their sourness, giving a Setouchi Lemon a more balanced sweet-sour taste and making them just right for Setouchi cooking.
In 1905, wase mikan oranges, a new type of early maturing type of tangerine, were introduced to the islands. Due to the growing popularity of lemons in cooking and the use of wase mikan as a refreshing summer snack across Japan, growing them became a highly lucrative business, and a golden age of prosperity for the Tobishima Kaido Islands began. In the industry’s heyday, the islands’s citrus farmers cultivated every inch of the islands, and according to one resident “the ishizumi stone terraced orchards reached to the sky.” Ocho, the market town located down the road from Mitarai, became one of the busiest ports in the region, shipping citrus branded as the Ocho Lemon and Ocho Mikan to the rest of Japan and from 1925 exporting Ocho Mikan abroad. By 1935, the islands were supplying 40 percent of the mikan consumed in Tokyo.
But after World War II, the fortunes of lemons and wase mikan declined. Prices dropped due to increased competition from citrus growers across the region. In addition, Japan opened its borders to imports of lemons and other citrus, such as navel oranges and grapefruit, which were enjoyed for their novelty as well as their taste. Japanese citrus farmers further intensified competition by constantly developing new varieties of citrus, especially new types of mikan.
Lemons ready to be shipped to other parts of Japan from Ocho port on Osaki Shimojima Island.
Mikan oranges for sale at one of the many roadside stands found on the islands during the winter months. Payment is based on the honor system, with coins being put into the box on the right.
Over the next half century, the islands lay in peaceful slumber, getting quieter and quieter due to their aging demographic and a steady migration of residents to cities on the mainland. This in its way has been positive for the islands. They have retained their idyllic way of life revolving around fishing, the gathering and processing of sea vegetables, and lemon and mikan farming, and are filled with charming small fishing villages and towns. The old port town of Mitarai is a veritable museum of some of the best-preserved historical architecture found anywhere in Japan. This includes ancient Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples and shops, homes, and entertainment halls from the Edo (1603-1868), Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926), and Showa (1926-1989) eras.
The bridges and roadways that connect the islands have brought changes, but only positive ones. Young people are returning to the islands and new residents are moving there, attracted by a slower way of life and the beauty of the environment, while still being conveniently connected to the amenities of major cities like Kure and only a little farther away Hiroshima. Tourists are also coming to the islands, but not too many because the roadway is not a throughway but dead ends at Okamura Island—the last island in the chain.
Most importantly, the roadways have linked the islands for the first time in their history, fostering a broader community among its “sea people,” and the islanders are working together to preserve their cultural heritage and restore the islands’ economy in thoughtful ways. This includes such developments as restaurants and inns housed in the islands many historic buildings, organic citrus farming to produce a better, healthier lemon whose peel can safely be used in cooking, and the creation of a new type of lemon—green lemons—simply by harvesting lemons starting in November, two months before the fruit has fully ripened. Vivaciously green, spicier, and more piquant than mature lemons, green lemons are a growing new business for lemon farmers as well as for the local food makers who are creating inspired new foods and dishes with them.
Access
A journey through the Tobishima Kaido Islands can begin in two different ways. From the Honshu Island mainland by crossing over the Akinada Bridge to Shimo Kamagari Island. An easy way to do this is to catch a bus to Shimo Kamagari Island from Nigata Station or Aki Kawajiri Station on the JR Kure Line. The JR Kure Line runs between the cities of Mihara and Hiroshima, both of which are stops on the JR Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train. Once on the islands, you can travel by local bus, rental car, or bicycle. In fact, the islands offer one of the best cycling courses in the region.
Or you can start at the other end of the island chain by taking a ferry to Okamura or Osaki Shimojima islands. Ferries arrive there from Takehara on the Honshu Island mainland, from Imabari on the Shikoku Island mainland, or from Omishima Island, which is the largest island in the nearby Shimanami Kaido Island chain. Either way you go, take advantage of the trains, buses, and ferries to make a continuous journey across this delightful corner of the Setouchi.