Awashima Maritime Memorial Museum

A Seamen's School Turned Maritime Museum

The Awashima Maritime Memorial Museum (粟島海洋記念館, Awashima Kaiyō Kinenkan) is the preserved campus of the former Awashima Seamen's School on Awashima island in Takuma-cho, Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture; five of its structures, built in 1920, were entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 7 June 1999, and the owner is Kagawa Prefecture.

Awashima sits about 4.5 kilometres northwest of Takuma port. In the Edo period it thrived as a port of call for kitamaebune, the cargo ships that worked the coast of the Sea of Japan and the Seto Inland Sea. In 1897 the island opened a village-run school for merchant seamen, reportedly built on land and money given by Nakano Torasaburō, a village councillor with a shipping business of his own.

The school is said to have passed to the prefecture in 1906 as the Awashima Navigation School. In 1940 it became a national institution, and after the war it ran as the national Awashima Seamen's School, sending crews out to ocean-going ships.

It closed in 1987, 90 years after opening. The buildings stayed on as the Awashima Maritime Memorial Museum, filled with ship machinery, models, photographs and papers from the school years, and the grounds became the Awashima Maritime Memorial Park.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the school Japan's first institution for training seamen, while Kagawa Prefecture puts it a little more narrowly as the country's first regional seamen's training school. The school dates from 1897, but the buildings you see are from 1920.

Five Registered Structures and How They Sit

All five were registered on the same day in 1999 and carry registration numbers 37-0020 to 37-0024. Four are timber buildings; the gateposts are stone.

• Main Building: 2 storeys, with the auditorium upstairs, at the front of the site facing the sea
• Exhibition Hall: a single-storey classroom block joined to the west side of the Main Building, turned into a display space after the school closed
• Training Building: a second single-storey classroom block, running north to south along the western edge of the site
• Martial Arts Hall: the former judo hall, a single-storey building behind the Main Building across a courtyard
• Gateposts: 2 granite posts standing in front of the Main Building

Approach from the water and the gateposts frame the Main Building, with the Exhibition Hall carrying the same facade treatment westward. The Agency reads the pair as the school's formal front. The Training Building closes the row at the west end, and the Martial Arts Hall hides behind the Main Building.

The buildings are painted a pale green and are the first thing you notice stepping off the ferry. Mitoyo City says the grounds hold old anchors, wartime sea mines and a bell believed to have come from a Qing Chinese warship around the time of the Sino-Japanese War.

Visiting and Getting There

The museum has been closed for renovation since 24 December 2021, with no entry to the buildings or the grounds. The Mitoyo tourism bureau gives 31 March 2027 as the end of the closure (checked September 2026). Until then, all five structures are seen from outside.

A road leads from Awashima port past the front of the museum toward the shore, and from it you can see the gateposts, the Main Building and the Exhibition Hall facade. Photography is limited to what is visible from there.

When the museum was open, hours ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., admission was free, and it closed on Tuesdays (the next day when Tuesday was a public holiday) and over the New Year break. Check the tourism bureau's listing for conditions after reopening.

Awashima Kisen ferries take about 15 minutes from Suda port in Mitoyo, with 8 sailings a day according to the city. To reach Suda port, ride the Mitoyo community bus from JR Takuma Station on the Yosan Line to the Suda stop, about 8 minutes, then walk about 5 minutes to the pier; parking at the port is free. A slower boat from Miyanoshita port calls at Shishijima on the way and takes about 50 minutes. From Awashima port the museum is about 5 minutes on foot. Current timetables and fares are on Mitoyo City's ferry page.

Names and Spellings

The current name is Awashima Maritime Memorial Museum. The school was the Awashima Seamen's School (Awashima Kaiin Gakkō), the national Awashima Seamen's School after 1940, and earlier the Awashima Navigation School (Awashima Kōkai Gakkō). Official registration names put the current name first with the former one in brackets, as in 粟島海洋記念館本館（旧粟島海員学校本館）.

Two records disagree in small ways. The national database calls the martial arts building 武道場 (budōjō), while Mitoyo City's list of cultural properties writes 武道館 (budōkan). The national record counts the gateposts as 1 set; the city list counts them as 1 building. This site follows the national record.