Beside Ieshima lies Tangajima, an island with a legend of its own. Long ago, a male and female deer are said to have lived together in Himeji. One day, the pair became separated. The male crossed the sea and settled on this island, while the female remained in an inlet on the opposite shore. According to the legend, the island took its name from the male deer, while the place where the female remained on the Himeji side is still called Mega today. The island and the town remain connected through the same story.

But people have been connected with these islands long before such legends were told. Researchers have found the remains of a Yayoi Period settlement on Tangajima, while Paleolithic stone tools have been found elsewhere in the Ieshima Islands. Human history here stretches far back into the distant past.

From the age of myth to the Yayoi Period and on to the present day, generations of people have crossed these waters and made their lives among these islands. Perhaps the legends that survive today preserve something of the memories of those who lived here, shaped by the sea around them.