The Awa Maru (阿波丸) was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha.

On December 27, 1906, the Awa Maru ran aground on the West Scar Rocks off Redcar.

There were no deaths, thanks to the efforts of the Redcar lifeboat crew and local fishermen, and after eighteen days the vessel was successfully refloated.

Arguably the most important voyage of this Awa Maru began when it left Yokohama on February 14, 1912, carrying 3,020 cherry trees of twelve varieties.

[6] These fragile tree slips were bound for Seattle where they were trans-shipped across the North American continent via insulated freight cars.