as Formosa, the Ryukyus (琉球; Ryūkyū). We also refer to the entire chain as the Ryukyu Islands (琉球諸島; Ryūkyū-shotō) and sometimes we say the Ryukyu Archipelago (琉球列島; Ryūkyū-Rettō).
However, the Japanese do not use these terms in the same sense as we do. They collectively refer to the island chain as the Nansei Shoto (南西諸島; Nansei-shotō), literally “Southwest Islands.” Or sometimes they’ll say Amami-Okinawa Chiho (奄美沖縛地方; Amami-Okinawa Chihō), which means Amami-Okinawa Region and has the same meaning as Southwest Islands. A term almost never used in the sense that we use it is Ryukyu (琉球; Ryūkyū). Rather, they say Okinawa (沖絹; Okinawa), which is considered a synonym, whereas we use that word just for the one main island. Whichever term the Japanese may use, they in turn divide the geographic term Ryukyu into two political subdivisions: Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿児島県; Kagoshima-ken) for the northern half of this island chain and Okinawa Prefecture (沖縛県; Okinawa-ken) for the southern half.
In other words, in the West when we use the term Ryukyu, it’s in a geographic sense for the whole chain of islands. The Japanese equivalent of our sense of that term is Nansei Shoto. When the Japanese say the Ryukyus, they mean only the southern half of the islands, the modern political subdivision of Okinawa Prefecture. Occasionally, if they use the now historical term Ryukyu Retto, they are referring to what was once the territory of the former Okinawan kingdom, which includes most, but not all, of the archipelago—the Amami Islands, Okinawa Islands, Miyako Islands and Yaeyama Islands.
On the following pages, we use the terms Ryukyu Retto, Ryukyu Shoto, Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu Group, Ryukyu Archipelago, Nansei Shoto, Nansei Islands, Southwest Islands and Southwest Group interchangeably. We’ll start at the top, in the north, and work our way down to the southernmost islands next to Taiwan. We’ll visit the entire archipelago, going from one group of islands to the next, exploring each island, one by one, as we go.
The Ryukyu chain starts just below Kyushu, the southernmost large island of mainland Japan. Kyushu holds, among others, the cities of Fukuoka (福岡市; Fukuoka-shi), Nagasaki (長崎市; Nagasaki-shi) and Kagoshima (鹿児島市; Kagoshima-shi).
Kagoshima City is the capital of Kagoshima Prefecture, which is close to where Kyushu Island terminates. It’s an important place because it is the Japanese mainland’s hub of ferry traffic to all the islands to the south. From here, one takes ferries to the relatively close islands of the Ōsumi and Tokara chains, plus it’s the departure and arrival points of ferries to the more distant Amami Islands and Okinawa. It’s a city of about 600,000 people and famous for its multitude of hot springs resorts.
Starting at Kagoshima, near Kyushu’s southern end, the land cleaves most dramatically into two long pincer arms. The western fork is the Satsuma Peninsula (薩摩半島; Satsuma-hantō). The longer eastern arm is the Ōsumi Peninsula (大隅半島; Ōsumihantō). The Ōsumi Peninsula’s extreme final tip is Cape Sata (佐多岬; Sata-misaki), the southernmost point of mainland Japan. Within the fork is an extraordinary deep water inlet and natural harbor, Kagoshima Bay (鹿児島湾; Kagoshima-wan), which is also widely known as Kinkō Bay (錦江湾; Kinkō-wan), where Kagoshima City is located. The city is known as the “Naples of the East” and is, in fact, a sister city to Naples. Like its Italian counterpart, a gorgeous bay overlooked by volcanic Mt Vesuvius, Kagoshima also enjoys a spectacular vista. Upon the clear, blue waters of its bay floats a great volcano, Sakurajima (桜島; Sakura-jima).
One of the most active volcanoes in Japan, if not the world, Sakurajima has had a number of violent and destructive eruptions in its history. Its 1914 eruption was the most powerful in 20th-century Japan. Its activity commenced again in 1955 and it has more or less been erupting ever since. Thousands of small explosions occur every year and not a day goes by that residents and visitors do not experience a minor earthquake or witness a rising smoke plume, volcanic ash or some other pyroclastic display. In fact, the continual emission of volcanic ash is a real annoyance to the people who live there. Cars must be continually washed, windows cannot be left open and hanging laundry must be rushed into the house. Most people carry an umbrella not for rain but for ash.
Kagoshima Harbor, mainland Japan’s jumping-off point for the Ryukyus.
Forming an island (but now connected by a land bridge) and rising 3,665 feet (1,117 meters) above sea level, Sakurajima is one of Japan’s major tourist attractions. It forms one part of Kirishima-Yaku National Park (霧島 屋久国立公園; Kirishima-Yaku Kokuritsu Kōen), Japan’s first national park. The other sections of this disconnected park are the ancient Sugi forests on the island of Yakushima; the land’s end at Cape Sata, and the 23 volcanic peaks of Kirishima (霧島市; Kirishima-shi) about 19 miles (30 kilometers) and less than an hour to the north. The two tallest peaks in the Kirishima Mountain range, 5,577-feet (1,700-meter) Mt Karakuni (韓国岳; Karakuni-daké) and 5,164-feet (1,574-meter) Mt Takachiho (高千穂岳; Takachiho-daké), are the mythological origin of the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu (天照; Amaterasu) and the birthplace of Japan. You may have already seen the Kirishima Mountains. They were filmed as the volcano lair of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the evil head of SPECTRE, in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice.
Part of Kagoshima-ken is on the mainland and part of it spreads across the Satsunan Islands (薩南藷島; Satsunan-shotō), which constitute the northern half of the Ryukyus. The Satsunans include about 25 inhabited islands and extend southwards across the Ōsumi, Tokara and Amami chains for about 312 miles (500 kilometers), all the way to Okinawa. The southernmost Satsunan Island, and the southernmost island of Kagoshima Prefecture, is Yoron, which lies a mere 14 miles (22 kilometers) above Okinawa’s north-ernmost tip at Cape Hedo.
Where Kagoshima Prefecture ends, Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa begins. Okinawa Island, which is located just about in the middle of the Ryukyu chain, serves as the dividing line between the two prefectures. Okinawa-ken consists of the group of islands collectively called Ryukyu-shotō by the Japanese and includes more than 50 inhabited islands. Starting at the north and heading south, the prefecture begins just below Yoron Island at Okinawa main island (沖縛本島; Okinawa-hontō), the largest island landmass in the Ryukyu Archipelago. Okinawa is, in turn, surrounded by many lesser islands, including one lesser group of islands, the mini-archipelago of the Keramas.
Formerly an island in Kagoshima Bay, Sakurajima volcano attached itself to the mainland of Kyūshū in 1914 by a narrow isthmus when its lava flows connected it to the Ōsumi Peninsula. There’s a causeway on it now.
Cape Sata (Sata-misaki), mainland Japan’s southernmost point.
The southern Ryukyu chain is subdivided into several groups, including the Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. These island groups extend southwest from the main island of Okinawa more than 312 miles (500 kilometers) to the small island of Yonaguni, only 68 miles (110 kilometers) east of northern Taiwan. In addition, Okinawa Prefecture includes the geologically and geographically unrelated small archipelagos of the Daitō Islands, 219 miles (350 kilometers) to the east of Okinawa Island in the Pacific Ocean, and the Senkakus, a disputed, uninhabited group close to mainland China and above Taiwan.
Altogether, the Satsunan Islands of the northern half of the Ryukyus constitute about 966 square miles (2,503 square kilometers). The southern half of the Ryukyus, Okinawa-ken, is 879 square miles (2,276 square kilometers). It’s a bit difficult to make suitable comparisons when they’re this little, but the smallest state in the US is Rhode Island (not an island incidentally). Its total land area is 1,045 square miles
