is an inhabited

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 ...

Mikawa Bay Mikawa Bay (Landsat photo) Mikawa Bay (三河湾 ''Mikawa-wan'') is a bay to the south of Aichi Prefecture, Japan, surrounded by Chita Peninsula The Chita Peninsula (知多半島 ''Chita Hantō'') is a peninsula to the south of Aichi Prefect ...

on the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

coast of Japan. The island is administered as part of the town of Minamichita in

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. , the island's population was 1,653 inhabitants in 622 households. All of the island is within the borders of the Mikawa-wan Quasi-National Park.

Geography

Shinojima is located approximately 10 kilometers from either

Chita Peninsula The Chita Peninsula (知多半島 ''Chita Hantō'') is a peninsula to the south of Aichi Prefecture, central Honshū, Japan. It runs approximately north-south. To the west is Ise Bay, while to the east it encloses Mikawa Bay. It faces the Atsu ...

Atsumi Peninsula The is a peninsula in southern Aichi Prefecture, central Honshū, Japan. Geography It has an approximate length of east-west, separating Mikawa Bay (to the north) from the Pacific Ocean to the south, with Ise Bay lying to its west. It fa ...

and three kilometers south of Himakajima. The highest point on the island is 49 meters, and is located in approximately the center of the island. Settlement is concentrated in a single hamlet. The total area of the island is 0.94 square kilometers. The island is rocky, and is surrounded by numerous offshore rocks and reefs.

Minor associated islands

Shinojima has nine smaller associated islands - Kijima, Oisojima, Chikimijima, Nojima, Matsushima, Togamejima, Hirashima, Koisojima, and Nakatejima. Due to modern landfill work, Koisojima and Nakatejima are now physically attached to the main Shinojima island.

History

Earliest settlement

Shinojima has been inhabited since at least the

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

. On Koisojima, archaeologists found ancient pottery dating back to the early Jomon period, roughly 9000 years ago. At Shimei Shrine, a shell mound was unearthed containing jomon pottery, notched deer antlers, and bone and antler tools. Archaeological layers containing pottery, stone tools, accessories and other items dating to the late Jomon, roughly 4000 years ago, have been found throughout the island. Archaeologists have also found

Yayoi period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...

and

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

remains.

Links with Ise Shrine

Long associated with

Ise Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the solar goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami and the grain goddess Toyouke-hime (Toyouke Omikami). Also known simply as , Ise Shrine is a shrine complex composed of many Shi ...

, the island is mentioned in the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 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 capita ...

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

'' poetry anthology. It has supplied salted and dried

sea bream Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes, the seabreams and porgies, although they were traditionally classified in the order Perciformes. The over 150 species are found in shallow and deep marine waters in te ...

to the shrine for use as offerings since before the Nara period. These offerings are made three times a year. The salted sea bream are first blessed in the Obendai Dedication Ceremony on Shinojima, before being transported to Ise City by fishing boat. Finally they are offered to the deity at the Gojoden in the Ise Shrine as part of a Shinto festival. Due to its connection with Ise Shrine, during these earlier periods, Shimojima belonged to the Shima Province (later Ise Province),日本の島 (Islands of Japan), issue 80, 8/8/2023, DeAtostini Japan, p.2. despite its geographical distance. During the reconstruction of Ise Shrine every twenty years, one of the buildings from Ise Shrine is always dismantled and Ishipped to Shinojima, where it is re-erected as the ''

honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

'' of the local Shimmei Jinja, founded in 771 AD.

Later periods

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 ...

, it was part of the holdings of

Owari Domain The Owari-Han, also known as the Owari Domain, was a significant feudal domain in Tokugawa shogunate, Japan during the Edo period. Situated in the western region of what is now Aichi Prefecture, it covered portions of Owari Province, Owari, Mino ...

under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

and contained a fishing settlement. Kato Kiyomasa is said to have used granite quarried on Shinojima in the construction of

Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Castle was constructed by the Owari Domain in 1612 during the Edo period on the site of an earlier castle of the Oda clan in the Sengoku period. Nagoya Castle was the heart of one of the ...

. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system after the start of the

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

, the island was organized as a village within Chita District, Aichi. It merged with surrounding towns and villages to form the town of Minamichita on June 1, 1961.

Fisheries

The waters around Shinojima are teeming with fish, and support strong fisheries of red snapper, oysters, fugu, and conger eel. The island catches the most whitebait (shirasu) of any fishery area in Japan. Because of the ready availability of seafood, it appears in many of the regional dishes of the island.

Flora and fauna

The area around Shinojima is a breeding ground for the endangered Red Sea turtle.

Tourism

In August 2024, actor and celebrity Junior Chihara was appointed tourism ambassador for Shinojima. He became a fan of the island after travelling there for a TV show he was a part of.

Festivals

Shinoshima Gion Festival - held in July (July 13 in 2024), this is the island's major festival. The Shinojima music festival has been held in early August since 2007. In returned in 2024 after a five-year hiatus due to the COVID epidemic.

Access

Shinojima is 10 minutes by high speed ferry, or 20 minutes by car ferry from Morozaki Port, 30 minutes by high speed ferry from Kowa Port, and 25 minutes by high speed ferry from Irago Port.日本の島 (Islands of Japan), issue 80, 8/8/2023, DeAtostini Japan, p.4. Ferries to and from the island are run by Meitetsu.

Notes

References

* ''Teikoku's Complete Atlas of Japan'', Teikoku-Shoin., Ltd. Tokyo 1990,

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Islands of Aichi Prefecture Minamichita, Aichi