Tonosho (土庄町), Shodoshima
Tonosho is the largest and most commercially active town on Shodoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture, located on the northwestern shore of the island facing the calm waters of the Seto Inland Sea toward the Okayama and Hyogo coastlines of Honshu. It serves as the primary gateway and administrative center of the island, functioning as the main arrival point for visitors and the commercial hub through which the daily life of Shodoshima's community is most actively organized.
Shodoshima itself is one of the most celebrated and beloved islands in the entire Seto Inland Sea, known throughout Japan for its extraordinary olive culture, its dramatic gorge scenery, its important soy sauce brewing heritage, and a natural landscape of warm Mediterranean-like beauty that has earned it the affectionate nickname "the island of olives". The island's combination of accessible natural beauty, authentic food culture, and relaxed island atmosphere has made it one of the most popular domestic island tourism destinations in western Japan.
The Tonosho ferry terminal is the busiest and most important maritime gateway on Shodoshima, receiving ferry services connecting the island to Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture, Uno Port in Okayama Prefecture, Himeji in Hyogo Prefecture, and Osaka. The multiple ferry connections from different mainland ports make Shodoshima one of the most accessibly situated islands in the Seto Inland Sea and Tonosho the natural first point of contact for the majority of the island's visitors.
The town has the pleasant and functionally practical character of an island gateway community, with hotels, restaurants, rental car and bicycle facilities, and the everyday commercial infrastructure serving both resident islanders and the substantial flow of visitors passing through throughout the year. The streets immediately around the ferry terminal are the most commercially active, containing the souvenir shops, seafood restaurants, and travel facilities that orient arriving visitors to the island's attractions.
The olive culture of Shodoshima is the single most celebrated and defining aspect of the island's identity, and Tonosho serves as the gateway through which visitors access this extraordinary agricultural heritage. Shodoshima was the first place in Japan where olive cultivation was successfully established, with the first olive trees planted in 1908 during the Meiji government's program to develop domestic olive oil production.
The island's warm and sunny Seto Inland Sea climate, combined with its well-drained hillside terrain, proved ideal for olive cultivation and Shodoshima has been the center of Japanese olive production for over a century. The Shodoshima olive oil, olive products, and the island's famous olive beef cattle raised on a diet supplemented with olive leaves and pulp are among the most prized and distinctively regional food products in Kagawa Prefecture.
The Shodoshima Olive Park, accessible from Tonosho by local bus or rental bicycle, is one of the most visited attractions on the island and houses the largest collection of olive trees in Japan within beautifully landscaped Mediterranean-inspired grounds overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. The park's famous white windmill, imported from Greece as a symbol of the island's olive heritage, has become one of the most photographed landmarks associated with Shodoshima.
The Seishun no Izumi (Spring of Youth) monument and the olive groves surrounding the park offer panoramic views over the island coastline and the surrounding Seto Inland Sea that capture the essential visual character of Shodoshima at its most beautiful and characteristic. The combination of silvery olive foliage, the calm blue sea, and the distant islands on the horizon creates a landscape of quietly Mediterranean beauty that is unique among Japanese island destinations.
The soy sauce brewing tradition of Shodoshima is equally important to the island's cultural and culinary identity, with the island recognized as one of the most important and historically significant centers of shoyu (soy sauce) production in Japan. The unique climate and the particular mineral composition of the island's water are believed to contribute to the distinctive flavor profile of Shodoshima soy sauce, which has been produced using traditional fermentation methods in wooden barrels for over 400 years.
The Shodoshima soy sauce breweries concentrated in the Shozu valley of the island's interior represent some of the last remaining producers in Japan using traditional large cedar barrel fermentation (kioke) methods that have largely been replaced by modern stainless steel production elsewhere. The preservation of these traditional brewing techniques on Shodoshima has attracted significant attention from food historians, culinary enthusiasts, and international chefs interested in the extraordinary depth of flavor produced by the ancient fermentation method.
The Kanka-kei Gorge (Kankakei Gorge), considered one of the three most beautiful gorges in Japan, is accessible from Tonosho and represents the most dramatically scenic natural feature on Shodoshima. The gorge, carved by the Kanka River through extraordinary formations of volcanic rock rising in jagged columns and overhangs, is particularly celebrated during the autumn foliage season when the surrounding maple trees turn vivid shades of red and orange against the dark volcanic rock.
The Kankakei Ropeway ascending the gorge from the valley below to the mountain ridge above offers one of the most dramatically scenic aerial journeys available on any island in the Seto Inland Sea, with views over the gorge, the island's olive groves, and the surrounding sea expanding progressively as the gondola ascends through the extraordinary volcanic landscape of the upper gorge.
The Setouchi Triennale contemporary art festival, held across multiple islands of the Seto Inland Sea every three years, has an important presence on Shodoshima with art installations and cultural projects distributed across the island including the Tonosho area. The festival has brought significant new cultural attention and international visitors to the island and its contributions to the creative landscape of Shodoshima continue to be felt between festival editions through permanent and semi-permanent installations.
Tonosho is served by ferry from Takamatsu Port in approximately 35 minutes on the high-speed service and 60 minutes on the regular ferry, making it one of the most quickly and conveniently accessible islands from the Shikoku coast. From Osaka, direct ferry services connect to Tonosho in approximately 4 hours 30 minutes on overnight services, while the route via Takamatsu by Shinkansen and ferry connection from Osaka takes approximately 2 hours total.
