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Mount Gusuku
is a mountain located on Iejima, Ie Island in Ie, Okinawa. The mountain rises on Iejima to the northwest of Okinawa Island and is the highest point on the island. Mount Gusuku is considered a symbol of Iejima due to its distinctive conical shape. The mountain sits on the eastern side of the island and is clearly visible from the main island of Okinawa and the East China Sea. The outline of Mount Gusuku can be clearly seen from the Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa Island and Sesoko Island. The mountain has historically served as a nautical landmark and appears in nautical charts from the medieval period. Etymology The Japanese language, Japanese reading for the mountain is "Shiro-yama;" however, in Okinawan language, Okinawan, it is pronounced "Gusuku-yama." The meaning of in both languages is "castle." In Kunigami language, Kunigami, the mountain is referred to as . Geology Mount Gusuku is 70 million years older than the rest of Iejima. The mountain was formed by a unique offsc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iejima
, previously romanized in English as Ie Shima, is an island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ..., lying a few kilometers off the Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa Island. The island measures in circumference and covers . As of December 2012 the island had a population of 4,610. Ie, Okinawa, Ie Village, which covers the entire island, has a ferry connection with the town of Motobu, Okinawa, Motobu on Okinawa Island. Iejima is generally flat. The most notable geographic feature is a peak called Mount Gusuku (or "Tatchuu" in Kunigami language, Kunigami) at a height of 172 meters. The mountain resembles a volcano but is actually an erosion artifact. Alternately called "Peanut Island," for its general shape and peanut crop, or "Flower Island," f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motobu Peninsula
The is a peninsula in the Yanbaru region of Okinawa Island. It is surrounded by Nago Bay to the east, the Haneda Inland Sea to the north, and the East China Sea to the west.Okinawa Island Guide " Nago City / Motobu Town / Nakijin VillageOkinawa Island Guide » Nago City / Motobu Town / Nakijin Village accessdate: April 4, 2017Google MapsGoogle Maps accessdate: April 3, 2017 It is mostly mountainous, with a few plains. The peninsula's northeasternmost point is Cape Bise.Figure 5 of 6terminal point accessdate: April 3, 2017 Its highest point is Mount Yae, whose summit is .Stripes OkinawaJapan's cherry blossom season starts here , Stripes Okinawa, accessdate: April 3, 2017 Due to a US military communications tower, the summit is off-limits.Map It! Okinawa: January 2017Map It! Okinawa: January 2017 accessdate: April 5, 2017Map It! Okinawa: Cherry Blossoms on Yaedake (Mt. Yae) accessdate: April 5, 2017 The peninsula was the center of power for the kingdom of Hokuzan in medieval t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utaki
Utaki (御嶽) is an Okinawan term for a sacred place, often a grove, cave, or mountain. They are central to the Ryukyuan religion and the former noro priestess system. Although the term ''utaki'' is used throughout the Ryukyu Islands, the terms ''suku'' and ''on'' are heard in the Miyako and Yaeyama regions respectively. Utaki are usually located on the outskirts of villages and are places for the veneration of gods and ancestors. Most gusuku have places of worship, and it is theorized that the origins of both ''gusuku'' and ''utaki'' are closely related. Important Utaki * Biinudaki (弁ヶ嶽), Naha * Misaki-on (美崎御嶽), Ishigaki * Miyatori-on (宮鳥御嶽), Nago * Pyarumizu-utaki (漲水御嶽), Miyako * Sefa-utaki (斎場御嶽), Nanjō * Sunuhyan-utaki ''Sunufan-utaki'' is a sacred grove of trees and plants (''utaki'') of the traditional indigenous Ryukyuan religion. It is located on the grounds of Shuri Castle in Naha, Okinawa, a few paces away from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryukyuan Religion
The Ryukyuan religion (琉球信仰), Ryūkyū Shintō (琉球神道), Nirai Kanai Shinkō (ニライカナイ信仰), or Utaki Shinkō (御嶽信仰) is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu Islands. While specific legends and traditions may vary slightly from place to place and island to island, the Ryukyuan religion is generally characterized by ancestor worship and the respecting of relationships between the living, the dead, and the gods and spirits of the natural world. Some of its beliefs, such as those concerning '' genius loci'' spirits and many other beings classified between gods and humans, are indicative of its ancient animistic roots, as is its concern with , or life essence. Over time, Ryukyuan religious practice has been influenced by Japanese Shinto and Chinese religions (White Lotus, Manichaeism, Taoism, Confucianism, and folk beliefs) along with Christianity and Buddhism. One of its most ancient features is the belief , the spiritual superiority of women ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bedrock is often called an outcrop. The various kinds of broken and weathered rock material, such as soil and subsoil, that may overlie the bedrock are known as regolith. Engineering geology The surface of the bedrock beneath the soil cover (regolith) is also known as ''rockhead'' in engineering geology, and its identification by digging, drilling or geophysics, geophysical methods is an important task in most civil engineering projects. Superficial deposition (geology), deposits can be very thick, such that the bedrock lies hundreds of meters below the surface. Weathering of bedrock Exposed bedrock experiences weathering, which may be physical or chemical, and which alters the structure of the rock to leave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okinawan Language
The Okinawan language (, , , ) or Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the Okinawa Island, island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama Islands, Kerama, Kumejima, Okinawa, Kumejima, Tonaki, Okinawa, Tonaki, Aguni, Okinawa, Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, endangered. Though Okinawan encompasses a number of local dialects, the Shuri, Okinawa, Shuri–Naha variant is generally recognized as the ''de facto'' standard, as it had been used as the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom since the reign of King Shō Shin (1477–1526). Moreover, as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace, the language used by the royal court became the regio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), there was a massive influx of Sino-Japanese vocabulary into the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords. The basis of the standard dialect moved f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sesoko Island
Sesoko Island (瀬底島, Japanese: ''Sesoko-jima'', Okinawan: ''Shisuku-jima'') is a small island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Politically, the place is administered by the town of Motobu, which is a part of the Kunigami District in the northern Okinawa Islands. It is a popular tourist destination due to its beaches. The island is accessible by car using the 762 meters long Sesoko Bridge. Both Iejima and Minnajima can be seen from Sesoko, and coral reefs are located 500 meters offshore the coastline. History By the 15th century, Sesoko was a part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a former country that controlled much of the Ryukyu Islands. After Japan's annexation of the kingdom in 1879, control of the island was transferred over to the modern prefecture of Okinawa. In 1950, it was put under the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands as a result of the second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East China Sea
The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated by an imaginary line between the eastern tip of Qidong at the Yangtze River estuary and the southwestern tip of South Korea's Jeju Island. The East China Sea is bounded in the east and southeast by the middle portion of the first island chain off the eastern Eurasian continental mainland, including the Japanese island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands, and in the south by the island of Taiwan. It connects with the Sea of Japan in the northeast through the Korea Strait, the South China Sea in the southwest via the Taiwan Strait, and the Philippine Sea in the southeast via gaps between the various Ryukyu Islands (e.g. Tokara Strait and Miyako Strait). Most of the East China Sea is shallow, with almost three-fourths of it being less than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okinawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city of Okinawa Prefecture, with other major cities including Okinawa, Uruma, and Urasoe. Okinawa Prefecture encompasses two thirds of the Ryukyu Islands, including the Okinawa, Daitō and Sakishima groups, extending southwest from the Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture to Taiwan ( Hualien and Yilan Counties). Okinawa Prefecture's largest island, Okinawa Island, is the home to a majority of Okinawa's population. Okinawa Prefecture's indigenous ethnic group are the Ryukyuan people, who also live in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. Okinawa Prefecture was ruled by the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1429 and unofficially annexed by Japan after the Invasion of Ryukyu in 1609. Okinawa Prefecture was officially founded in 1879 by the Empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okinawa Island
is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five main islands of Japan. The island is approximately long, an average wide, and has an area of . It is roughly south of the main island of Kyushu and the rest of Japan. It is north of Taiwan. The total population of Okinawa Island is 1,384,762. The Greater Naha area has roughly 800,000 residents, while the city itself has about 320,000 people. Naha is the seat of Okinawa Prefecture on the southwestern part of Okinawa Island. Okinawa has a humid subtropical climate. Okinawa has been a critical strategic location for the United States Armed Forces since the Battle of Okinawa and the end of World War II. The island was under American administration until 1972, and today hosts around 26,000 US military personnel, about half of the total complement of the United States Forces Japan, spread among 32 bases and 48 training sites ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kunigami Language
The Kunigami or Northern Okinawan language (), is a Ryukyuan language of Northern Okinawa Island in Kunigami District and city of Nago, otherwise known as the Yanbaru region, historically the territory of the kingdom of Hokuzan. The Nakijin dialect is often considered representative of Kunigami, analogous to the Shuri-Naha dialect of Central Okinawan. The number of fluent native speakers of Kunigami is not known. As a result of Japanese language policy, the younger generation mostly speaks Japanese as their first language. Location In addition to the northern portion of Okinawa Island, Kunigami is spoken on the small neighboring islands of Ie, Tsuken and Kudaka. Scope and classification ''Glottolog'', following Pellard (2009), classifies Kunigami with Central Okinawan as the two Okinawan languages. ''Ethnologue'' adds Okinoerabu and Yoron; these (along with all other languages of the northern Ryukyu Islands) are classified as Amami languages by ''Glottolog''. The UNESCO ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
