, literally "small treasure island", is one of the

Tokara Islands The is an archipelago in the Nansei Islands, and are part of the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. The chain consists of twelve small islands located between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima. The islands have a total ...

, belonging to

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 ...

. The island, 1.0 km² in area, is the smallest inhabited island in the archipelago, and has a population of 49 people. The island can only be reached by boat as it has no airport; there is regular ferry service to the city of Kagoshima on the mainland. Travel time is about 13 hours. The islanders are dependent mainly on fishing and seasonal tourism.

Geography

Kodakarajima is the second southernmost inhabited island in the Tokara archipelago, and is located southwest from

Nakanoshima is a 3 km long and 50 hectares narrow sandbank in Kita-ku, Osaka city, Japan, that divides the Kyū-Yodo into the Tosabori and Dōjima rivers. Many governmental and commercial offices (including the city hall of Osaka), museums and oth ...

and north from Takarajima. The central peak has a height of above sea level. There is a hot spring, Yudomari-onsen on the island, with water temperatures reaching 90 deg C. The island is surrounded by a

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

, and has a number of limestone pinnacles on its coastline. The local climate is classified as subtropical, with a rainy season from May through September.

History

The island was once part of the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

. During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, Kodakarajima was part of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

and was administered as part of Kawabe District. In 1896, the island was transferred to the administrative control of

Ōshima District, Kagoshima is a district located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. As of the March 20, 2006 merger but with 2003 population statistics, the district has an estimated population of 78,882 and a density of 84.4 persons per km2. The total area is 934.10 ...

, and from 1911 was administered as part of the village of

Toshima, Kagoshima is a village consisting of the islands of the Tokara Islands located in the Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The village office is located in the city of Kagoshima, outside the village. As of 1 October 2020 ...

. From 1946 to 1952, the island was administered by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

as part of the Provisional Government of Northern Ryukyu Islands.

References

*National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA). ''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Japan Enroute''. Prostar Publications (2005).

External links

Official home page
{{Tokara Islands Tokara Islands Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture