Saganoseki Port

photo by Gohachiyasu1214 · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Kamezukakofun · CC BY-SA 4.0

Caught one at a time, on a line: this is how the Seki-aji and Seki-saba fish brands come about.

In the Hayasui Strait, between the Saganoseki Peninsula and Sada-misaki (Ehime), the fast currents between the Pacific and the Inland Sea concentrate food for mackerel and horse mackerel, giving them firm, flavourful flesh. The fish are caught one at a time with the ikkon-zuri technique (hand line) so as not to damage them and to protect the stock, then kept alive in tanks until they reach port and processed with ikejime (immediate bleeding) to preserve their freshness: this is how the Seki-aji and Seki-saba brands come about, among the first branded fish in Japan.

The film combines three different vessels: the port is here, the ship comes from elsewhere. The Kokudō Kyūyon Ferry sails from Saganoseki, while the hull and the arrival port drawn in the film are those of the Orange Ferry on the Kyūyon route, which, however, leaves from Usuki port, some eighty kilometres further south, and reaches Yawatahama in about two and a quarter hours. The ship's interiors come from yet another ferry, the Suōnada one.

ℹ️ If you want to make the crossing just as it appears in the film, you need to board at Usuki, not here.

🚉 Saganoseki · 8 min walk

Sources: seichimap.jp · ecotopia.earth · animepilgrimage.com · newt.net · sekiajisekisaba.or.jp

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