, also known as in Okinawan, is a mountain in

Kunigami is a List of villages in Japan, village in Kunigami District, Okinawa, Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and Municipalities ...

on the main island of

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

. It has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of , but Yonaha-dake

triangulation station A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The station is usually set up by a map ...

is located at the next peak of elevation of .

Etymology

"Mount Yonaha" in the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

is formed from three

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

, , and . The kanji are

ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...

, or kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words.

Geography

Mount Yonaha is approximately north of the capital of Okinawa Prefecture,

Naha is the Cities of Japan, capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 people per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). ...

,与那覇岳天然保護区
/ref> and approximately east of the of Kunigami. It is formed from

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliation (geology), foliated metamorphic rock formed from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. I ...

, and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, and dates from the

Tertiary period The Tertiary ( ) is an obsolete Period (geology), geologic period spanning 66 million to 2.6 or 1.8 million years ago. The period began with the extinction of the non-bird, avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at t ...

to the mid-

Mesozoic era The Mesozoic Era is the era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs, and of gymnosperms s ...

. It appears as a gentle slope, but its summit is surrounded by a series of complex valleys. It is the highest mountain on the island and the second highest in the prefecture after

Mount Omoto is a mountain located on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, Japan. Together, with Kabira Bay, it is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty. Overview At above sea level, Mount Omoto is the tallest mountain in Okinawa Prefecture. It is lo ...

Ishigaki, Okinawa is a Cities of Japan, city in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It includes Ishigaki Island, Ishigaki island and the Senkaku Islands territory. The city is the political, cultural, and economic center of the Yaeyama Islands. New Ishigaki Airport serves ...

. It is part of the

Okinawa Kaigan Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park on the coast of Okinawa and the Kerama Islands, Japan. It was established as a Prefectural Park in 1965 and re-designated with the return of Okinawa to the Japanese administration in 1972. See also * List of national ...

, and the highest mountain in the park. A paved road extends from the village of Kunigami at the mountain's base to its summit. Mount Yonaha is home to the largest waterfall on Okinawa Island, the Hiji Waterfall (). Due to the effect of the

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black Current or is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

, the mountain is almost always covered in

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

Rivers

* * *

Yanbaru forest

Mount Yonaha is at the center of the

Yanbaru is the Okinawan and Kunigami name given to the forested northern part of Okinawa Island in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of Higashi, Kunigami, and Ōgimi, Yambaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of subtropical rainfore ...

forest that spans the villages of

Higashi Higashi (Japanese 東 ''east'') may refer to: Places in Japan *Higashi, Shibuya *Higashi, Fukushima *Higashi, Okinawa *Higashi-ku, Fukuoka *Higashi-ku, Hiroshima *Higashi-ku, Nagoya *Higashi-ku, Sapporo People *Keigo Higashi, Japanese footballer ...

, Kunigami, and

Ōgimi is a village located in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of October 2016, the village has an estimated population of 3,024 and a population density of 51 persons per km2. The total area is . Several censuses have established ...

. Yanbaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

in Asia, and the mountain is lush with

evergreens In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

forests. While Mount Yonaha is an important natural habitat to numerous species of plants, birds, and animals, its ecology has been negatively affected by agricultural development at its base, and

lumbering Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks

and the subsequent establishment of second-growth forest.

Military installation

Mount Yonaha's summit is approximately west of the border of

Camp Gonsalves Camp Gonsalves is a U.S. Marine Corps jungle warfare training area located in northern Okinawa, Japan, across the villages of Kunigami and Higashi. Established in 1958, it is the largest U.S. training facility in Okinawa. The camp is located i ...

, a jungle warfare training center of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

External links

与那覇岳天然保護区

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yonaha Mountains of Okinawa Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty Kunigami, Okinawa