is a small, uninhabited island within the

Geiyo Islands The are a group of islands in the Seto Inland Sea, under the administration of Hiroshima Prefecture and Ehime Prefecture. Some of the largest islands in archipelago are connected by the Nishiseto Expressway bridge system connecting Honshu and Shi ...

of the Japanese

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. In the late mediaeval period, the island was occupied by

Noshima Castle was a Sengoku period Japanese castle in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, located on an island in the Seto Inland Sea. It was the stronghold of the Noshima Murakami, a maritime clan of sailors and sometimes pirates or mercenaries. The ruins of Noshima Ca ...

and, together with the surrounding area, was the base of 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 ...

, 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 ...

. In his ''Historia de Iapam'',

Luís Fróis Luís Fróis (1532 – 8 July 1597) was a Portuguese missionary who worked in Asia during the second half of the 16th century. While in Japan in 1582, he witnessed the attack on Honnō-ji, a Buddhist temple that ended in the death of Oda Nobuna ...

described Noximadono (''i.e.'',

the lord Lord is a general title denoting deference applied to a male person of authority, religious or political, or a deity. Lord or The Lord may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Lord (band), an Australian heavy metal band * "The Lord" (song ...

of Noshima) as ''o mayor corsario de todo Japaõ'', "the greatest corsair in all Japan". The island castle, together with tiny Taizakijima immediately to the south, has been

designated Designation (from Latin ''designatio'') is the process of determining an incumbent's successor. A candidate that won an election for example, is the ''designated'' holder of the office the candidate has been elected to, up until the candidate's i ...

a National Historic Site, and is 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, while Noshima is also afforded protection as a Class I Special Zone within

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 ...

. There is no scheduled service to the island, which may be approached by a vessel chartered from on nearby Ōshima.

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; Noshima is the small unmarked island towards the bottom right, between " Ō-shima" and "U-shima" Series L775, U.S. Army Map Service, 1945 (Habu Sheet 4749-4).jpg, 1945 US AMS map showing, near the bottom, "No Jima", between "Ō-shima" and "U-shima", and "Taisaki-Shima", immediately to the south Noshima Murakami flag pass (Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives).jpg,

"flag pass", issued to a priest at Itsukushima in Aki Province and dated to Tenshō 9.4.28 (1581), followed by the signature Takeyoshi (Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives)

References

External links

* {{in lang, ja}
Detailed maps of Setonaikai National Park
( Ministry of the Environment; Noshima is in 愛媛県地域（今治北）) Imabari, Ehime Islands of the Seto Inland Sea Islands of Ehime Prefecture Uninhabited islands of Japan

See also

References

External links