On the Road to Okinawa and the Sakishima Islands

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On the Road to Okinawa and the Sakishima Islands

Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.

From Vol.6. In the previous article, we discussed the Akasaka walk.This trip was to Okinawa Prefecture. After visiting Shuri and Itoman Fishing Port on the main island of Okinawa, we will visit the market, Miyara-dennai, Ishigaki Family, and Miyajima Gogoku on Ishigaki Island, the entrance to the main island, and then take a boat to Taketomi Island to visit Inu no Iido, Ushioka no Oka, Kaji-toge in the forest, Hoshisuna no Hama, Kihoin, and Shushukan, Ogi-mori, Shimanaka Family, and the Asato Family of Mijo Kuyama. Next, from Ishigaki Airport to Yonaguni Island, Japan’s westernmost island, the trip ends with a visit to Sanninu-dai, the large rock and monument of the female chief San’ai Isoba, and Tunguta.

This trip will be to the islands of Okinawa Prefecture. The name of the first island is “Minami Hateruma Island,” which is said to be located further south of Hateruma Island, the southernmost island in Japan (bottom left in the map above), and is a phantom island that does not exist. The gods of Okinawa come from the sea, unlike the gods of the desert who come from the heavens. The island from which they depart is Minami Hateruma Island.

In Okinawa Prefecture, the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, which lie offshore to the southwest of the main island, are collectively referred to as “Sakishima. Hateruma Island is part of these Sakishima.

The trip began with a flight from Osaka’s Itami Airport to Naha on the main island of Okinawa.

Shuri, where the old royal castle of Okinawa was located, is located on a hill. The town of Shuri is said to have been beautiful and “if the town of Shuri had remained exactly as it was before the war, Okinawa would be a tourist destination on par with Kyoto, Nara, and Nikko,” but thanks to the Pacific War, it is gone and now only traces of it remain in Shuri Park. (Shuri Castle also burned down in a fire in 2019.)

Kokusai-dori, Naha’s downtown area, also has an exotic atmosphere similar to that of Taiwan’s landscape.

Okinawa first appears in history in 753, when Jianzhen is said to have stopped there on his way to Japan.

In the 14th century, with the introduction of iron tools, agricultural production increased dramatically and the population grew, leading to the rise of three kingdoms (Sanzan Kingdom; Kitayama, Chuzan, and Nanzan), of which Chuzan King Sho hashi destroyed both Nanzan and Kitayama to unify Ryukyu. However, in 1609, the Ryukyu Kingdom was invaded by the Satsuma Clan, and for a while it was exploited by the Satsuma Clan, and with the Meiji Restoration, it became Okinawa Prefecture.

From Naha, we will first fly to Ishigaki Island. The trip to Ishigaki Island will be made by Nansei Airlines.

Ishigaki Island is located in the Yaeyama Archipelago and is the third largest island in Okinawa and the 21st largest island in Japan. (Population is around 49,000.) It is 410 km southwest of Naha and, conversely, only 270 km from Taiwan.

In Ryotaro Shiba’s “Clouds over the Hill,” the Russian Baltic Fleet was first spotted on Miyako Island, 133 km east of Ishigaki Island. The fishermen who spotted the Russian ships jumped onto a wooden boat from the beach to inform the telegraph office on Ishigaki Island, which followed them to Ishigaki Island to send information that would determine the course of the Russo-Japanese War.

Upon arriving at Ishigaki Island, the group visited Miyara-dennai, where they saw a stone moat and a building with red Ryukyuan tiles.

On Ishigaki Island, he also visited a sacred area called Miyatomidake.

After Ishigaki Island, visit Taketomi Island by boat.

On Taketomi Island, we are staying at Takana Ryokan, an old ryokan.

After Taketomi Island, the group returned to Ishigaki Island by boat and then headed for Yonaguni Island by air. The old Ishigaki Airport was a small one like a local ferry terminal.

Today, it is a new airport.

Yonaguni Island is similar in shape to Shikoku Island, but is one-twentieth the size of Awaji Island. In Ryotaro Shiba’s time (1970s), the island had a population of about 3,000, but the current population has decreased to about 1,600.

It is said to be the most varied of all the islands in the Yaeyama Archipelago, with beautiful scenery, mountains, fields, cliffs, land, and coral reef beaches. Incidentally, the location of the mac in the photo is “Santa Catalina Island” in California, U.S.A.

One of the features of Yonaguni Island is its burial system. Cliff burial, a type of wind burial, was practiced, and cliff burial graves were set up near the villages of the time. Later, the body was placed in a rock cave and the entrance was sealed with stones or soil to make a tomb, which spread to the general public and became the turtle tomb.

This is because on Yonaguni Island, there is no boundary between light and darkness, and the dead also live on a platform where the sea breeze blows with the same brightness as or brighter than on earth. Furthermore, there is a belief that the gods of the Ryukyu Islands come from the sea rather than descending from the heavens, so their tombs are located on high places. In Yonaguni Island, for example, there is a cemetery on the plateau of Hatahama.

The island journey proceeded to the story of Sanai Isoba, the powerful female chief of Yonaguni Island, who

We end up at a village bar, drinking awamori and watching a Ryukyuan song improvisation play.

As a center of exchange in Southeast Asia, Okinawa is attracting attention from around the world as a paradise in the south, where people have interacted with various cultures, and where traditional crafts, performing arts, and court cuisine have been refined and passed down to the present day.

The next trip will be to the Tottori region, which is steeped in ancient culture, including Shirouto Beach, known for the myth of the “White Hare of Inaba,” and places associated with Ōtomo no Yakamochi, a Manyo (Japanese classical poetry) poet.