Qualla: Tomonoura

Tomonoura: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carpkazu, CC BY 3.0. Hayao Miyazaki spent two months in Tomonoura in 2005, living quietly in this tiny port town on the Seto Inland Sea. What he found there -- the intimate harbor, the layered hillside of temples and merchant houses, the constant presence of the water -- became the visual foundation for Ponyo, his 2008 film about a goldfish who wants to become human. Miyazaki was not the first artist to fall under Tomonoura's spell. Poets have written about this harbor since the 8th century, when eight verses praising it were collected in the Man'yoshu, Japan's oldest poetry anthology. The town's old nickname tells you why they came: Shio machi minato, the port of waiting for tides.

Read more: Tomonoura on Qualla

Image: Carpkazu | CC BY 3.0

Tomonoura: Where the Currents Meet

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. Tomonoura sits at the southern tip of the Numakuma Peninsula, 14 kilometers south of Fukuyama Station in Hiroshima Prefecture. Its location was determined by physics: the tidal currents of the Seto Inland Sea converge here, and in the age of sail, ships traveling in either direct...

Read more: Tomonoura on Qualla

Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5

Tomonoura: Layers Upon Layers

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit As6022014, CC BY 3.0. Tomonoura's history reads like a compressed timeline of Japan itself. Temples established during the Heian period by the Buddhist founders Saicho and Kukai still stand. The Nunakuma Shrine is recorded in the Engishiki, the 10th-century compendium of imperial procedures, as the or...

Read more: Tomonoura on Qualla

Image: As6022014 | CC BY 3.0

Tomonoura: Saving the Harbor

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. In the early 2000s, Tomonoura faced a crisis familiar to historic communities worldwide: a plan to build a bridge across the scenic harbor for a bypass road. The conflict between development and preservation grew fierce enough to attract international attention. The World Monumen...

Read more: Tomonoura on Qualla

Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5

Tomonoura: A Town That Inspires

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Beyond Miyazaki's Ponyo, Tomonoura has drawn a remarkable range of creative attention. The composer Michio Miyagi wrote Haru no Umi, one of the most famous pieces of koto music, inspired by the sea here in 1929. Wim Wenders photographed the nearby coast for his 2006 exhibition A ...

Read more: Tomonoura on Qualla

Image: Public domain