is a Japanese island in the

Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait, or "arm of the sea". An inland se ...

. Administratively, it forms part of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Imabari 270px, Imabari City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Imabari city center is a city in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. It is the second largest city in Ehime Prefecture. , the city had an estimated population of 152,111 in 75947 households and a population ...

, Ehime Prefecture.

Geography

Kurushima is situated some off the coast of Shikoku's at the entrance to in

. The island has a coastline of approximately and a surface area of . It is a natural fortress with cliffs to the north shaped by the fast currents (some to ) and rocks below; there is a settlement on the flatter land to the south, around a small bay. To the east, the are spanned by the

Kurushima Kaikyō Bridge The , which connects the island of Ōshima to the main part of Shikoku, was the world's longest suspension bridge structure when completed, in 1999. The bridge is part of the Shimanami Kaidō, an expressway that spans a series of islands and con ...

, while the island is protected as part of

Setonaikai National Park is a Japanese national park, comprising areas of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, and of ten bordering prefectures. Designated a national park in 1934, it has since been expanded several times. It contains about 3,000 islands, known as the Setouchi Isl ...

History

During the Sengoku period, the island was the base of the Kurushima Murakami, one of the three main houses of the

Murakami kaizoku Murakami may refer to: * 3295 Murakami, a minor planet * Murakami (crater), an impact crater on the far side of the Moon * Murakami (name), a Japanese surname, including a list of people with the name * Murakami, Niigata, a city in Niigata prefectu ...

(the others the

Noshima Murakami The Noshima Murakami were a Japanese family, involved in seafaring and piracy during the 16th century. The family was based on Noshima, a small island off the coast of Shikoku in the Seto Inland Sea. Ōuchi clan In 1532, the Noshima began workin ...

and Innoshima Murakami). There are still remains of the walls of , an element of

Japan Heritage is a programme sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, aimed at valorization by local governments and other bodies, that sees individual Cultural Property (Japan), Cultural Properties across the different categories as well as other not yet d ...

"Story" #036, as well as traces of residences and wells. In the Edo period, together with nearby , the island was part of in Matsuyama Domain, with an

assessment Assessment may refer to: Healthcare *Health assessment, identifies needs of the patient and how those needs will be addressed *Nursing assessment, gathering information about a patient's physiological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual s ...

of twenty-six ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'', three '' to'', and nine '' shō''. Around the end of the

Kyōhō , also pronounced Kyōho, was a after '' Shōtoku'' and before '' Gembun.'' This period spanned the years from July 1716 through April 1736. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1716 : The era name of ''Kyōhō'' (meaning "Underg ...

era in the early eighteenth century there were some seventy-eight households, fifty-three of them of fishermen. By Shōwa 53 (1978) this number had dropped to thirty-nine households, primarily making a living by commuting to the local shipyards and

line fishing Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

. As of 2009, Kurushima had thirty-two residents.

Related maps

Series L506, U.S. Army Map Service, 1953 (NI 53-5 Hiroshima).jpg, 1953 US AMS map showing

Hiroshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama ...

and, across the sea to the south,

in Ehime Prefecture; Kurushima is the small unmarked island near the bottom, to the right of the tip of what is marked Shikoku, just above Hashihama and to the southwest of "O-shima" ("Ko-jima" on the next map) Series L775, U.S. Army Map Service, 1946 (Kikuma Sheet 4649-2).jpg, 1946 US AMS map showing "Kuru-shima", to the southwest of "Ko-jima" ("O-shima" on the previous map)

References

External links

*
Japan's outlying islands
( MLIT) *
Detailed maps of Setonaikai National Park
( Ministry of the Environment; Kurushima is in 愛媛県地域（今治南）) {{Authority control Imabari, Ehime Islands of the Seto Inland Sea Islands of Ehime Prefecture

Geography

History

Related maps

See also

References

External links