is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

located in Miyake Subprefecture,

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. , the village had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 2,415, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

of 44.3 persons per km². Its total area is .

Geography

Miyake Village covers the island of Miyakejima, in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea and the nearby uninhabited Ōnohara Islands, south of central

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Neighboring municipalities

*Tokyo Metropolis **

Hachijō, Tokyo is a town located in Hachijō Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,056, and a population density of 97.7 persons per km². Its total area is . Electric power for the town is provided by a geothermal ...

Kōzushima, Tokyo is a village located in Ōshima Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 1,841, and a population density of 99 persons per km². Its total area is . Geography Kōzushima Village covers the islands ...

History

It is uncertain when human settlement first began on Miyakejima, but the island was known to be inhabited since at least in the early

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the c ...

, and is mentioned in historical records for its many volcanic eruptions. The island was used as a penal colony during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

. After the start of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, in 1878, the island came under the control of

Tokyo-fu Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and was organized into five villages (Izu, Kamitsuki, Igaya, Ako and Tsubota) under Oshima subprefecture on October 1, 1923. Miyake subprefecture was created out of Oshima subprefecture on April 1, 1943. On August 31, 1945, during the Allies' occupation of Tokyo, ground gunners on Miyake-jima fired three shots at an American transport aircraft, with no casualties. These were to be amongst the last shots fired in the war. The three villages of Izu, Kamitsuki and Igaya merged on October 1, 1946, to form the village of Miyake, which was joined by Abo and Tsubota on February 1, 1956. The village was evacuated in the year 2000 due to volcanic eruptions, and the inhabitants were only allowed to return from 2005.

Economy

Fishing and seasonal tourism are the mainstays of the economy of Miyake.

Transportation

Airport

* Miyakejima Airport

Education

Miyake village operates a public elementary, Miyake Elementary School (村立三宅小学校), and a public junior high school, Miyake Junior High School (村立三宅中学校). The

Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education (東京都教育委員会 ''Tōkyō-to Kyōiku Iinkai'') is the board of education in Tokyo, Japan. The board directly manages all of the public high schools in all 23 special wards, the Western ...

operates one high school, Miyake High School.

Local attractions

* Miyake is famous for its traditional ''

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming ...

'' performances, known as ''kamitsuki kiyari taiko'',

References

External links

Miyake Village Official Website
{{Authority control Villages of Tokyo Populated coastal places in Japan