, literally "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 to ...

, belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture. The island, 7.14 km² in area, has a population of 116 persons. 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 of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

. Travel time is about 13 hours. The islanders are dependent mainly on fishing and seasonal tourism.

Geography

Takarajima is the southernmost inhabited island in the Tokara archipelago, and is located from Kagoshima Port and north from

Amami Ōshima , also known as Amami, is the largest island in the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa. It is one of the Satsunan Islands. The island, 712.35 km2 in area, has a population of approximately 73,000 people. Administratively it is ...

. The highest peak, Imakiradake has a height of above sea level 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 groups. C ...

. Its climate is classified as subtropical, with a rainy season from May through September.

History

Numerous ceramic shards and the foundations of dwellings from the late

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a ...

and

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

indicate that Takarajima has been continuously inhabited for at least the past 2000 years. Until 1624, the island was part of the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom, Middle Chinese: , , Classical Chinese: (), Historical English names: ''Lew Chew'', ''Lewchew'', ''Luchu'', and ''Loochoo'', Historical French name: ''Liou-tchou'', Historical Dutch name: ''Lioe-kioe'' was a kingdom in t ...

. 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 character ...

, Takarajima was part of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshim ...

and was administered as part of Kawabe District. In August 1824, a British ship violated Japan’s national seclusion policy and sent a landing party of 20-30 men, who attempted to steal cattle from the islanders. In the ensuing conflict, one British sailor was killed. The incident was one of the contributing factors to the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

issuing the Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels in 1825. The incident was also the subject of a novel by modern writer

Akira Yoshimura was an award-winning Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels ''Shipwrecks'' and '' On Parole''. Life and work Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a PEN member. He published over 20 novels, ...

. 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 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 2013, the v ...

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

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

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