生名島

The bridges between Yuge, Sashima, Ikina, and Iwagi tie four of the twenty-five islands into a single walking and cycling distance, while the rest remain reachable only by boat. From Ikina, the Hiroshima island of Innoshima sits a short channel away, close enough that the shipyards there draw commuters across the prefectural border each morning. This is Kamijima, a scatter of granite hills in the Geiyo archipelago, where the rhythms of daily life run along ferry timetables and bridge approaches rather than rail lines.

Citrus terraces shape much of what the eye registers on Iwagi — the green lemons and hassaku that the islands send out in season — and along the shoreline, nori cultivation and small-scale fixed-net fishing continue in the quiet, deliberate way that aging communities sustain. Sekizen-zan rises above Iwagi with its hilltop view over the inland sea, and on the smaller paths one comes across older markers of settlement: Ikina Hachiman Shrine, the Jōkō-ji temple, the modest exhibits at the Iwagi local history museum.

What distinguishes the texture here from the better-known cycling islands further east is the absence of through-traffic. The Setouchi Kōryūkan serves as a gathering point rather than a visitor center, and an evening at Komogakushi Onsen by the water belongs more to the islanders than to anyone passing through. Depopulation is real, and the silences carry weight, but the bridges, the boats to Innoshima, and the steady work of the citrus groves keep the islands within the current of ordinary life.