, which means "Heaven's Grass," is a series of

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s off the west coast of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan.

Geography

The largest island of the Amakusa group is Shimoshima, which is 26.5 miles long and 13.5 miles at its widest (). It is situated at 32°20'N, 130°E, separated from the rest of

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture t ...

by the

Yatsushiro Sea The , also called the , is a shallow semi-enclosed inland sea separating the island of Kyūshū from the Amakusa Islands. It lies mostly within Kumamoto Prefecture and at the southern end of the sea it also borders Kagoshima Prefecture. To the n ...

. While lacking high mountains with only four peaks surpassing , the island terrain is ruggedly hilly. To cope with the lack of flat arable land, farming is carried out on a

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

system of cultivation.

History

Amakusa, along with the neighboring

Shimabara Peninsula The is a peninsula located in Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. The peninsula incorporates the cities of Shimabara, Minamishimabara, and Unzen. The northern, eastern, and southeastern coasts of the peninsula face the Ariake ...

, became the site of the

Shimabara rebellion The , also known as the or , was an rebellion, uprising that occurred in the Shimabara Domain of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan from 17 December 1637 to 15 April 1638. Matsukura Katsuie, the ''daimyō'' of the Shimabara Domain, enforced unpo ...

in the 17th century, led by

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

. Following the rebellion,

Kakure Kirishitan ''Kakure Kirishitan'' () is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan who went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century (lifted in 1873) due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate (Apr ...

, the Christians who had survived, continued to practice their faith in secret, despite severe persecution.

Economy

Amakusa produces a little

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and pottery stone, both being used by the

potters A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US * Potter, Arkansas * Potter, Nebraska * Potters, New Je ...

of Hirado ware and

Satsuma ware is a type of Japanese pottery originally from Satsuma Province, southern Kyūshū. Today, it can be divided into two distinct categories: the original plain dark clay made in Satsuma from around 1600, and the elaborately decorated ivory-bodied ...

. Many kilns remain on the islands today, and pottery and pottery stone are still exported. Amakusa pottery has been recognised by the government. The retail company

Muji , or is a Japanese retailer which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-brand" policy. ...

brought out its own line of '' Hakuji'' home ware, which is produced out of ground translucent Amakusa stones kneaded into clay, using traditional techniques.

People

Hidenoshin Koyama, who built

Thomas Blake Glover Thomas Blake Glover (6 June 1838 – 16 December 1911) was an Anglo-Scottish merchant in Bakumatsu and Meiji-period Japan. Early life (1838–1858) Thomas Blake Glover was born at 15 Commerce Street, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire in northeast Sc ...

's House in

Glover Garden Glover House known as ''Ipponmatsu'' (Single Pine Tree) from a drawing of 1863. The tree was chopped down in the early 20th century. is a park in Nagasaki, Japan, built for Thomas Blake Glover, a Scottish merchant who contributed to the mo ...

, came from this island. Kenta and Ko-shin, two of the three members of Wanima come from the island of Amakusa.

Government

At present, the islands are organized as Amakusa District, Amakusa City, and Kami-amakusa City, all of which are under the administration of

Transport

The islands are served by

Amakusa Airfield is an airport northwest of Amakusa, Kumamoto, Japan, on the Amakusa Islands in Japan. Locals often refer to it as Amakusa Airport. It is on the northern side of the Amakusa Islands, northwest of Amakusa city. It is used by only one airline, Am ...

, located on the north end of Shimoshima. The islands are connected to the mainland by the

Five Bridges of Amakusa are five road bridges in southern Japan, linking the Kyushu mainland (Kumamoto Prefecture) and the Amakusa Islands. The bridges connect the islands of Ōyano-jima, Nagaura-jima, Ike-jima, and Maeshima, and were completed on September 24, 1966. T ...

and by ferry from Hondo and

Matsushima is a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands (''shima'') covered in pines (''matsu'') – hence the name – and it is considered to be one of the Three Views of Japan. Nearby cultural properti ...

. There are also

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

between the islands and the neighboring prefectures of

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

and

Nagasaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan, mainly located on the island of Kyūshū, although it also includes a number of islands off Kyūshū's northwest coast - including Tsushima and Iki. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,246,4 ...

. The ferry from Oniike on the north Shimoshima to Kuchinotsu, at the southern tip of the

, is run by the Shimabara Railway and operates hourly each day. The ferry boat from Tomioka Port in Reihoku, sailing north to Mogi in Nagasaki Prefecture, is operated by Yasuda Sangyo Kisen Co. Ltd. Ferry boat schedule, web:
Yasuda-kisen
. Two ferries from Shinwa and Ushibuka, in the south of Shimoshima, connect Amakusa to Nagashima in Kagoshima Prefecture.

References

Sources

* {{Authority control Islands of Kumamoto Prefecture Islands of the East China Sea