Former Shōnodani Pier

A pier built for a fortress

The Former Shōnodani Pier (旧正野谷桟橋, Kyū-Shōnodani Sanbashi) is an early Shōwa-period pier on the shore at Shōno, Ikata Town, Nishiuwa District, Ehime Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 December 2003. It stands near the tip of Cape Sadamisaki and runs 73 meters, combining reinforced concrete with stone masonry.

This was never a fishing pier. Ikata Town records that it was built to land construction materials for the Second Battery of the Hōyo Fortress. To defend the Hōyo Strait between Shikoku and Kyushu, an outline plan for the fortress was approved in 1919, and work on the Sadamisaki batteries began in 1921. The First Battery was installed in 1926 and the Second in 1927, which is the year the town gives for the pier.

The Sadamisaki Peninsula had no adequate roads at the time. Everything arrived by sea. A structure where boats could tie up at the foot of the slope leading to the battery was the whole point of the work.

Twenty-four columns and a masonry joint

The Former Shōnodani Pier was entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. Its registration number is 38-0052, from the 39th round, and it is counted as a single structure.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the pier rests on twenty-four cylindrical columns. The reinforced concrete section, finished in washed mortar and fitted with mooring posts, joins a retaining wall of green schist laid in a manner resembling yahazu-zumi, and granite is set on the abutment where the two meet. Two quite different building traditions, poured concrete and hand-laid local stone, run into one another as a single continuous structure.

Sources give different measurements. The national database records a length of 73 meters; Ikata Town describes it as roughly 50 meters long and 5 meters wide. The agency's figure appears to include the connecting masonry, while the town's refers to the pier deck itself. The registered figure of 73 meters is used here.

The town also notes a device fitted to reduce the force of waves striking the structure. The peninsula tip takes hard wind and heavy sea, and the fact that the pier has lasted more than eighty years owes something to that provision.

The battleship jetty

The agency's entry records that local people know the structure by the nickname Gunkan-hato, the battleship jetty. Ikata Town writes that residents called it the military pier. Both names catch the same thing: nobody mistook this for a place to land fish.

Standing in front of it, the line of columns is what registers first. Twenty-four legs go down into the water and carry the deck above. Rather than building out from the shore in solid fill, as a fishing quay does, the design lifts the structure clear of the surface.

The washed-mortar finish was made by rinsing the surface before the mortar had fully set, exposing the grains of aggregate. Up close the small stones are visible. In places that texture has survived more than eighty years of salt wind.

The point where concrete meets masonry rewards a close look. Green schist is tilted and stacked into a retaining wall, granite blocks sit on the abutment above it, and from there the structure turns to concrete. Modern engineering and a local stone-laying tradition meet along one line.

The mooring posts are the part that makes the pier's working life concrete. Thinking about what came ashore here changes how the whole thing looks.

Visiting

The Former Shōnodani Pier belongs to Ikata Town and, as an outdoor structure, can be seen at any time. No admission is charged, no gate hours apply, and no booking is needed. No notice prohibiting photography was found.

Getting there takes some effort. From the prefectural road that leads to the Sadamisaki lighthouse, an overgrown footpath descends about 500 meters to the shore. This is not a paved tourist route, so wear proper shoes. The tip of the peninsula is exposed, and on windy days the pier cannot be approached safely. A calm day in spring or autumn is the sensible choice.

The pier projects over open water and has aged. It is not intended to be walked on. Keep to the shore and view it from land.

Reaching the site by public transport alone is impractical. From Yawatahama Station on the JR Yosan Line, an Iyotetsu Nanyo Bus runs toward Misaki, but a car is needed for the last stretch. Follow National Route 197 toward the Sadamisaki lighthouse and look for the path entrance off the prefectural road near the Shōno settlement. The Sadamisaki Peninsula Museum, a roadside station run by the town, covers the peninsula's history and the Hōyo Fortress, and a stop there first makes the pier easier to place.