Onomichi is a town built on a slope, with the hills at its back and a narrow channel of water at its feet. A Meiji-era gazetteer described it as the most prosperous commercial city between the two great markets of Okayama and Hiroshima, and counted its population at about thirty thousand three hundred and fifty people.
The same account gives the town's shape as long and thin: roughly eleven cho from east to west and about five cho from north to south. As it describes the ground, one side climbed into high land joined to the mountains, while the other sloped down toward the sea. Those figures are Meiji-period ones, not today's.
The day below follows that ground: a short walk or bus ride from the station to the ropeway, the ropeway up to the summit, the temple of Senkoji on the hillside, then two museums to finish. The fares, ride times and opening hours are gathered into lists and tables, so you can pick them out at a glance.
From the station to the ropeway
Two ways lead from JR Onomichi Station to the foot of the Senkoji-yama Ropeway, and neither takes long. The walk is the simpler choice if you want to see the town at ground level first; the bus is there for anyone who would rather keep their legs for the slope. Side by side, they compare like this:
- On foot: JR Onomichi Station to the Senkoji-yama Ropeway base station, approximately fifteen minutes.
- By bus: Onomichi Station bus stop number one or number five to the Nagae-guchi stop, approximately five minutes.
- Bus fare: one hundred and fifty yen for adults and eighty yen for children, Onomichi Station to the Nagae-guchi stop.
Whichever you choose, the difference is a few minutes and a small fare. The bus sets you down at the Nagae-guchi stop; the walk brings you to the base station directly. The ropeway itself, its prices and its short ride, is covered in the next section.
What the ropeway costs and how long it takes
The Senkoji-yama Ropeway runs between the base station, Sanroku Station, and the summit station, Sancho Station, and the ride one-way takes three minutes. That is short enough that the ticket decision matters more than the clock: a round-trip if you mean to ride both ways, a one-way if you plan to come down on foot.
| Fare | One-way | Round-trip |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | five hundred yen | seven hundred yen |
| Child | two hundred and fifty yen | three hundred and fifty yen |
The ride is short, and the car rises above the rooftops almost at once. The photograph above shows what the window gives you: the channel, the bridge and the island opposite, spread out below. It is worth choosing the side of the car that faces the water, if you have the choice.
Where to stay
Places to stay near Onomichi →
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Senkoji at the top of the slope
Senkoji stands partway up Taiho-zan, about eight cho east of what the Meiji gazetteer calls Onomichi stopping-place, the present Onomichi Station. It is a temple of the Kogi Shingon school. The gazetteer passes on the tradition that it was founded more than eleven hundred years before its own day, and that Tada Manju restored it.
The main hall enshrines a Senju Kannon, the thousand-armed form of the bodhisattva of compassion. The account attaches two traditions to the image: that it was made by Prince Shotoku, and that it served as the personal guardian image of Tada Manju. Both are handed-down beliefs, and the gazetteer presents them as such.
As the gazetteer describes it, from the temple's south-east side the whole of Onomichi lies below, with Mukaishima across the channel and, far beyond, the mountains of Iyo and Sanuki. It called this the foremost scenic spot of Tama-no-ura. Guided tours of Onomichi are one way to have that story told on the spot.
Onomichi City Museum of Art
The first of the two museums is the Onomichi City Museum of Art. Feature exhibitions here carry a plain admission price, with a lower rate for students, and the opening hours run as a single span through the day. The one figure worth noting is the last-admission time, which sits in the list below alongside the prices.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| General admission, feature exhibition | three hundred and ten yen |
| Student admission, feature exhibition | two hundred and ten yen |
| Opening hours | nine in the morning to five in the afternoon |
| Last admission | half past four in the afternoon |
Arriving with time in hand is the whole trick here. If Senkoji and the slope have taken the morning, the museum fits into the early afternoon, well before the last-admission cut-off. The student rate applies to the same feature exhibitions as the general one.
Onomichi Film Museum
The second museum is the Onomichi Film Museum, the last stop of the day. Its admission is a single figure for individual visitors, with a lower figure for groups of a certain size, and both are set out below so that a party travelling together can see at once which applies.
- General admission: five hundred and twenty yen.
- Groups of twenty or more people: four hundred and twenty yen for admission.
By then the slope, the ropeway and the temple will have given you frames of your own, and a museum devoted to film is a fitting place to set them beside other people's. Fares and hours do change, so check official information before visiting. If one day is not enough, places to stay in Onomichi turn it into two.