 The features of the natural harbour around Wadamisaki Peninsula has meant the port in Hyogo has been an important gateway to the Seto inland sea since the 8th-century Nara period.In the 12th century, in the latter part of the Heian period, Taira no Kiyomori recognized the strategic benefit of the location and developed the harbor, including the building of , a man-made island completed in 1173 and described as 37 hectares in size in The Tale of the Heike.Kiyomori, the de facto ruler of Japan between 1160 and 1180, moved his official residence to Fukuhara, in what is modern-day Hyogo.