Kiyomori Legend Memorial Mound

This stone monument on a reef off the east coast of Kurahashi Island marks a site tied to one of medieval Japan's most vivid legends. Taira no Kiyomori is said to have stopped the sun from setting by fanning it with a folding fan, giving his men enough time to dig the Ondo-no-seto Channel in a single day. Modern geology confirms the channel formed naturally, but local villagers built the mound in 1184 to honor Kiyomori anyway. At its center stands a memorial pagoda from the Muromachi period. The current Japanese black pine, planted in 1991, is the third generation to stand watch over the site.