Tokara Islands

Tokara Islands
	Map of the seven inhabited Tokara Islands
Waters	East China Sea
archipelago	Satsunan Islands
Geographical location	29 ° 23 ' N , 129 ° 27' E Coordinates: 29 ° 23 ' N , 129 ° 27' E
Number of islands	12
Total land area	101.35 km²
Residents	761 (October 1, 2019)

The Tokara Islands ( Japanese 吐噶喇列島 or simplified トカラ列島 , Tokara-rettō ) are a chain of islands in southwest Japan , which belongs to the Ryūkyū Islands or Nansei Islands , which have existed as a political region since 1970.

The island chain consists of 12 small islands between Yakushima and Amami-Ōshima . The islands have a total area of 101.35 km² and the island chain is almost 150 km long. Administratively it belongs to the village of Toshima and seven islands are inhabited by 761 people.

The Tokara Islands, especially Takara-jima Island, are home to the Tokara pony and Kuchinoshima is the only habitat of the Lilium nobilissimum lily species .

etymology

The community of Toshima gives two theories as meaning for Tokara: On the one hand, it is said to come from the word tohara , which roughly means distant sea area ( 沖の海原 ) and refers to the view of the Amami and Okinawa Islands . On the other hand, however, it could also come from the Ainu word tokap , which means breast. This is said to refer to the mountain Megami-yama ( 女神山 , "goddess mountain") on the island of Takara-jima, which first gave this island its name and then the entire chain of islands. However, the Ainu live in northern Japan .

history

The Shoku Nihongi mentions, together with Tane , Yaku and Amami, an island called Tokan ( 度感 ) for the year 699 , which is usually identified with Tokara and is then the first mention of it, but could also refer to Tokunoshima 150 km away . Occasionally, an earlier mention in the Nihon Shoki for the year 654 is used. However, the "Land Tokara" ( 吐火羅国 , Tokara no kuni ) mentioned there probably denotes Tukhāra , the land of the Tochars .

In 1908, the islands were under the administration of the village of Jittō ( 十島村 , - son , literally: "ten islands"), in addition to the seven inhabited Tokara Islands, the inhabited islands of Iōjima , Kuroshima and Takeshima to the north also belonged. After the Second World War , the islands south of the 30th parallel, and thus also the Tokara Islands, were placed under US administration on February 2, 1946. On February 10, 1952, the islands were returned to Japan and the municipality of Toshima was founded, which spells the same as Jittō, but no longer administers the northern three islands - these form a separate municipality called Mishima .

Islands

The island chain is made up of the following islands:

image	Surname	Kanji	Area [km²]	2004 residents	highest point [m]	summit	Coordinates
	Kuchinoshima	口之島	13.33	140	628.5	Maedake	29 ° 58 ' N , 129 ° 55' E29.970833333333 129.92222222222
	Nakanoshima	中之島	34.47	167	979.0	Otake	29 ° 51 ' N , 129 ° 53' E29.841666666667 129.875
	Gaja-jima	臥蛇島	4.07	-	497.2		29 ° 54 ' N , 129 ° 33' E29.903055555556 129.54166666667
	Kogaja-jima	小臥蛇島	0.50	-	301, 0		29 ° 53 ' N , 129 ° 37' E29.88 129.62083333333
	Taira-jima	平島	2.08	79	242.9	Otake	29 ° 41 ' N , 129 ° 32' E29.6875 129.5325
	Suwanose-jima	諏訪之瀬島	27.66	48	796, 0	Otake	29 ° 38 ' N , 129 ° 43' E29.638611111111 129.71388888889
	Akuseki-jima	悪石島	7.49	72	584.0	Mitake	29 ° 28 ' N , 129 ° 36' E29.46 129.60166666667
	Kojima	小島	0.36	-	56, 0		29 ° 14 ' N , 129 ° 21' E29.227777777778 129.34583333333
	Kodakara-jima	小宝島	1.00	43	102.7		29 ° 13 ' N , 129 ° 20' E29.223888888889 129.32611111111
	Takara-jima	宝島	7.14	114	291.9	Imakira-dake	29 ° 9 ' N , 129 ° 12' E29.144444444444 129.20805555556
	Kaminone-jima	上ノ根島	0.54	-	280, 0		28 ° 50 ' N , 129 ° 0' E28.832222222222 129.00083333333
	Yokoate-jima	横当島	2.76	-	494.8		28 ° 48 ' N , 128 ° 59' E28.799166666667 128.98888888889
f1 Map with all coordinates: OSM \| WikiMap

Web links

Commons : Tokara Islands - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Tokara Islands Website (Japanese)
Topographic map 1: 250,000

Individual evidence

↑ Ajiro Tatsuhiko and Warita Ikuo, Waga kuni no kōiki na chimei oyobi sono han'i ni tsuite no chōsa kenkyū (The geographical names and those extents of the wide areas in Japan), Kaiyō Jōhōbu Gihō, Vol. 27, 2009.
↑ ^a ^b ^c 十島村の概要 . Toshima, accessed January 14, 2011 (Japanese).
^ Ethnic Studies Oral History Project, University of Hawaii at Manoa: Uchinanchu: A History of Okinawans in Hawaii . University of Hawaii Press, 1981, ISBN 978-0-8248-0749-8 , pp. 6 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
↑ Digitized version of Shoku Nihongi , fascicle 1 : ○ 秋七月辛未。多〓。夜久。菴美。度感等人。従朝宰宰而来貢方物。授位賜物各有差。其度感嶋通中国、於是始矣。

↑ David Waterhouse: Where did Toragaku come from? In: Musica Asiatica . tape 6 . Cambridge University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-521-39050-8 , pp. 75 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

↑ 人口 . (PDF; 19 kB) (No longer available online.) Toshima, archived from the original on July 4, 2011 ; Retrieved January 13, 2011 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

[1] Ajiro Tatsuhiko and Warita Ikuo, Waga kuni no kōiki na chimei oyobi sono han'i ni tsuite no chōsa kenkyū (The geographical names and those extents of the wide areas in Japan), Kaiyō Jōhōbu Gihō, Vol. 27, 2009.

[Profil-2] 十島村の概要 . Toshima, accessed January 14, 2011 (Japanese).

[3] Ethnic Studies Oral History Project, University of Hawaii at Manoa: Uchinanchu: A History of Okinawans in Hawaii . University of Hawaii Press, 1981, ISBN 978-0-8248-0749-8 , pp. 6 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[4] Digitized version of Shoku Nihongi , fascicle 1 : ○ 秋七月辛未。多〓。夜久。菴美。度感等人。従朝宰宰而来貢方物。授位賜物各有差。其度感嶋通中国、於是始矣。

[5] David Waterhouse: Where did Toragaku come from? In: Musica Asiatica . tape 6 . Cambridge University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-521-39050-8 , pp. 75 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[6] 人口 . (PDF; 19 kB) (No longer available online.) Toshima, archived from the original on July 4, 2011 ; Retrieved January 13, 2011 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2