It is located at the northernmost cape of Awaji Island facing the Akashi Strait opposite the city of Kobe.

It was one of the five lighthouses stipulated specifically by the provisions of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858, in which the Tokugawa shogunate agreed to open the port of Hyōgo to western commerce and to allow British subjects to reside in Osaka.

The tower was built from granite quarried on the island of Ieshima in the Seto Inland Sea, and the original light source was an oil lamp.

In 1996, the former staff quarters of the lighthouse was restored and relocated to the Shikoku Mura open-air architectural park in Takamatsu, Kagawa.

The Esaki Lighthouse was designated as a National Important Cultural Property in 2022.