Cultural Properties

Eshima Island breaks the water’s surface at the northern tip of Awaji Island and boasts beautiful natural scenery. It is considered one of the legendary sites of Onokoro Island in the Kuniumi Story.
The island consists of sandstone beds formed approximately 38 to 35 million years ago and have been shaped by years of wind and wave erosion. Iron within the earth oxidized along cracks and bedding planes, depositing limonite in shades from brown to yellow and creating beautiful bands. Round, reddish-brown stones can also be seen across the rock face.
These stones are called “nodules”; they form when silicic acid and carbonate condense and settle around fossils and sand grains. Locally, they are also known as “Naki-ishi.”
The stunning beauty of Eshima Island has inspired many poets, whose numerous waka poems survive to this day.
The Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike) recounts that people living in the new capital of Fukuhara—either wishing to view the moon at famous scenic spots or recalling the past exploits of the Minamoto clan’s generals—traveled from Suma along the coast of Akashi, crossed the Awaji Strait, and admired the moon from the shores of Eshima Island. This passage suggests that Eshima was renowned as a moon-viewing site.
The monk Saigyo, a poet active from the end of the Heian period to the Kamakura period (the late 12th-13th centuries), composed a poem: “Tonight, amid the plovers’ cries, I gaze upon the moon at Eshima’s shore, reflected upon the waves.” The poem is inscribed on the monument at the entrance to the bridge that leads to Eshima Island.