Iwaya is a small fishing port on the north tip of Awaji, thirteen minutes by high-speed ferry from Akashi on the Honshu side, ten minutes by car from the great Akashi Strait Bridge that now connects the two coasts. It is the place most visitors arrive on Awaji, and for that reason — though it has no shrine of its own and no direct mythological connection — it deserves a stop on the Kojiki Trail.
Why this is the start
The Kojiki opens with the bearing of Awaji as the first island. From a writer’s standpoint in Nara or Kyoto in the 8th century, that ordering made sense: Awaji is the stepping stone between the great cities of central Japan and the western islands of Shikoku and Kyushu. To go anywhere south or west, you had to either pass Awaji or sail around it. To arrive on Awaji from the mainland, for centuries, meant landing at Iwaya.
This is why the trail starts here. Not because anything mythological happened at Iwaya itself, but because Iwaya is the door. Crossing from the mainland to Awaji, by ferry or by bridge, is the modern reenactment of arriving at Onogoro, the first piece of Japan to rise from the sea.
What you’ll actually see
Iwaya today is a quiet working port. Fishing boats are pulled up on the slipway. The Jenova Line ferry (a high-speed catamaran) runs across the strait to Akashi roughly every half hour. A breakwater curves out into the sea, and from its end you can see Eshima offshore and the Akashi Strait Bridge to the east.
The harbour-front building has been redeveloped as Iwaya Port Terminal, with a tourist information desk, a few small restaurants serving local seafood, a souvenir shop selling Awaji’s famous onion produce, and parking with the first hour free.
Three things to look for
- The view of the Akashi Strait Bridge — the longest suspension bridge in the world for many years after its 1998 opening, and still among the longest. From the harbour, the scale is humbling.
- The tide — the Akashi Strait runs strongly, and at maximum tide the current visibly accelerates past the breakwater. This is the same current the Kojiki gods are said to have stirred.
- The view of Eshima — the small islet is visible from the harbour-front, a one-minute walk from the ferry pier. See the separate Eshima entry for what to look for there.
How it fits the trail
If you are walking the full Awaji circuit, begin here. Take the Jenova Line ferry from Akashi to Iwaya, or drive across the bridge. Stop at the harbour; look back at the mainland; turn south.
From Iwaya, the trail moves first to Eshima a one-minute walk away, then south thirty minutes by car to Onokoro Jinja, then northeast to Izanagi Jingu. By the end of the day, you will have walked the full kuni-umi narrative — beginning, middle, and end.
The threshold first. Then the rest of the world.