Tamayura's Takehara: the Inland Sea salt town an anime barely had to redraw

Tamayura (たまゆら) is a quiet anime about a teenage girl named Fū, the film camera her late father left her and the town where he grew up. That town is Takehara, an old salt-and-sake port on the Hiroshima coast. Most of what the series drew is still standing.

A town the series barely had to change

Takehara grew wealthy in the Edo period from salt fields along the Seto Inland Sea, and later from sake. Its merchant houses stand inside a preservation district, the machinami hozon chiku (町並み保存地区), about fifteen minutes on foot from JR Takehara Station. The tiled roofs, latticed fronts and stone lanes that bend uphill look less like anime backgrounds than like the places the artists traced them from.

The view from Fumeikaku

The frame most visitors come for is Fumeikaku (普明閣), a hall of Saihōji temple built out over the slope above the district. From its wooden platform the rooftops fold together in grey tile, and the late-afternoon light comes close to the soft palette of the series. It is a working temple and the platform is small, so climb the steps slowly and leave room for others.

Looking the way Fū does

The series is about learning to look, and that is a useful way to visit. Stay on the public lanes and keep your lens away from doorways, because many of these houses are still homes. The Taketsuru sake brewery, run by the family of Nikka whisky founder Masataka Taketsuru, sits on the main street.

竹原の町並みは、画面の中よりも少しだけ静かだ。(Takehara no machinami wa, gamen no naka yori mo sukoshi dake shizuka da — Takehara's streets are a little quieter than they are on screen.)

When to go

Weekday mornings are the calmest. On an autumn weekend the town holds Shōkei no Michi (憧憬の路), when bamboo lanterns line the lanes after dark and the crowds come with them. Tadanoumi, where ferries leave for Ōkunoshima, is a few stops east on the Kure Line, so the two make an easy day on the Inland Sea.