inlandsea

Miyajima, just off the coast of Hiroshima City, is a sacred island unconnected to the mainland of Honshû by bridges. The massive four-legged torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine is among the most famous in the country, and is one of the Three Views of Japan (日本三景, Nihon sankei). The "Aki" referred to in the title of this image is Aki Province, which constituted the western half of what it is now Hiroshima Prefecture, and which remains in use as a romantic or poetic name for the area.

Nice boat.

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.