馬島

The Kurushima Strait moves fast beneath the bridges, and the small island of Mashima sits caught between them, reached by a road that most drivers cross without slowing. An interchange exists, but only residents use it. From JR Imabari Station a bus arrives in roughly a quarter hour; a ferry still runs from Hashihama Port. Thirteen people live here, in a settlement opened in the Edo period for grazing horses and, later, for cultivating flowers.

Walk from one end to the other and you pass the Kurushima Sunosaki lighthouse at the northern tip and the Uzuhana lighthouse at the southern, both standing watch over a current known for its speed. Mashima Shrine, dedicated to Watatsumi-no-mikoto, holds its annual rite in October — a small festival on a small island. The inn Miharashi serves suigun-ryōri, the cuisine that takes its name from the old naval bands of the Seto Inland Sea, and that single dinner table is, in effect, the island's restaurant.

What distinguishes this place from the more frequented stops along the Shimanami Kaidō is the absence of through-traffic. The bridges pass overhead; the island stays beneath them, tending its flowers, listening to the strait. Long days here would be quiet in a way that is neither curated nor performed — simply the rhythm of thirteen households, two lighthouses, and a shrine.