百島

The ferry from Onomichi to Fukuda Port runs across a stretch of the Seto Inland Sea where the islands of the Geiyo archipelago thin out toward the north. Momoshima sits between Onomichi and Tsuneishi, reached by the boats of Bingo Shōsen, and the timetable shapes the day more than any clock. The coastline here is designated as a natural shore preservation zone, and the water keeps the slow, milky quality particular to this part of the inland sea.

Walking inland from the port, one passes the Tenmangū in the Fukuda district, tied by local tradition to the Sugawara no Michizane legend, and further on Sairin-ji, a Sōtō temple founded in the late sixteenth century. The island's older layers — the Murakami navy, the mountaintop site of Momoshima Chausuyama castle, the later wave of emigration overseas during the Meiji years — sit close to the surface without being curated. The Oyumi shinji is observed in its season; otherwise the days hold to the rhythm of arrivals and departures at the small harbor.

What distinguishes Momoshima from the better-known islands of the Geiyo chain is, perhaps, this absence of staging. There are no bridges. The ferry remains the only way in, and once aground, the road simply continues past houses, kitchen gardens, and the worn stone of the shrines. Hyōtanjima floats nearby, a reminder that even the smallest landforms here have names and stories. For someone reading the inland sea slowly, the island offers a quiet, working version of it.