下関

View of Shimonoseki, Inland sea

from New York Public Library

• Shanti said:

  That is the sacred torii of Akama Shrine in Shimonoseki. Nowadays there is a road in front of the torii over some land gained to the sea. The other coast we see in this beautiful photo is Kita-Kyushu, the northern part of the next japanese island: Kyushu. The strait is only about 1 Km wide here, between Honshu and Kyushu islands. Since some decades, there is a tunnel that link them under the water and a famous bridge. Anecdotically, Shimonoseki was the first japanese village ever visited by a culturized european (he was the basque priest Francisco Xabier, in 1550) and, ten years ago, the japanese institutions built a monument dedicated to him just at some meters to the right from the location of the photographer who originally took this picture.