is one of the

Tokara Islands The is an archipelago in the Nansei Islands, and are part of the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. The chain consists of twelve small islands located between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima. The islands have a tota ...

, belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture. The island covers 27.66 km² in area and has a population of 48 people. Although the island has an airport, there are no regularly scheduled services, and access is normally by ferry to the city of Kagoshima on the mainland. The island is about nine hours by boat from the mainland. The islanders are dependent mainly on agriculture, fishing and seasonal tourism.

Geography

Suwanosejima is the second largest of the islands in the Tokara archipelago, and is located southwest from

Nakanoshima is a 3 km long and 50 hectares narrow sandbank in Kita-ku, Osaka city, Japan, that divides the Kyū-Yodo into the Tosabori and Dōjima rivers. Many governmental and commercial offices (including the city hall of Osaka), museums and other ...

. The highest elevation is , with a height of above sea level, which is the exposed cone of an active stratovolcano arising from the ocean floor. The local climate is classified as subtropical, with a rainy season from May through September.

History

Suwanosejima has been populated sporadically (depending on volcanic activity), for several thousand years. The island was once part of the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom, Middle Chinese: , , Classical Chinese: (), Historical English names: ''Lew Chew'', ''Lewchew'', ''Luchu'', and ''Loochoo'', Historical French name: ''Liou-tchou'', Historical Dutch name: ''Lioe-kioe'' was a kingdom in the ...

. During the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

, Suwanosejima was part of Satsuma Domain and was administered as part of Kawanabe District. It was abandoned after a great 15th century eruption, until it was resettled by people of the

Amami Islands The The name ''Amami-guntō'' was standardized on February 15, 2010. Prior to that, another name, ''Amami shotō'' (奄美諸島), was also used. is an archipelago in the Satsunan Islands, which is part of the Ryukyu Islands, and is southwest of ...

in the 19th century.Snyder 1999, pg. 63 After large-scale Plinian eruptions from 1813-1814, which ejected a large amount of

scoria Scoria is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock that was ejected from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains or clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) '' ...

and saw lava flows to the west coast, the island was abandoned by its inhabitants again until 1883. Further eruptions occurred in 1877, 1914-1915, 1921, 1922-1925, 1938, 1940, 1949, 1950-1954, 1957-1999, 2001-2002 and 2004-present. One of the most active volcanic islands in the world, Suwanosejima recorded 156 volcanic eruptions in 2008 and 216 in 2009. In 1896, the island was transferred to the administrative control of

Ōshima District, Kagoshima is a district located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. As of the March 20, 2006 merger but with 2003 population statistics, the district has an estimated population of 78,882 and a density of 84.4 persons per km2. The total area is 934.10 k ...

, and from 1911 was administered as part of the village of

Toshima, Kagoshima is a village consisting of the islands of the Tokara Islands located in the Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The village office is located in the city of Kagoshima, outside the village. As of 2013, the vill ...

. From 1946-1952, the island was administered by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

as part of the Provisional Government of Northern Ryukyu Islands. It is the home of Buzoku, also called the Banyan Ashram, a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

founded in the 1960s by Sansei Yamao,

Nanao Sakaki Nanao may refer to: Places *, Japan **Nanao Line a rail line through Nanao, Ishikawa ** Nanao Station a station on the Nanao Line *Nan'ao County (), Shantou, Guangdong ** Nan'ao Island (), forming most of Nan'ao County *Nan'ao Subdistrict (), a ...

, and others, and home for a while to American poet and scholar Gary Snyder.

References

Bibliography

* National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA). ''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Japan Enroute''. Prostar Publications (2005). * Das, Bhagavan (1997). ''It's Here Now (Are You?)'' Broadway. * Halper, Jon, ed. ''Gary Snyder: Dimensions of a Life'' (1991) Sierra Club Books. * Shurtleff, William and Aoyagi, Akiko (1998). ''The Book of Tofu''. * Snyder, Gary. ''The Gary Snyder Reader'' (1999) Counterpoint.

External links

Suwanosejima
- Toshima Village Official Website

- Japan Meteorological Agency * - Japan Meteorological Agency

- Geological Survey of Japan * {{Tokara Islands Tokara Islands Volcanoes of Kagoshima Prefecture Active volcanoes Stratovolcanoes of Japan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture Holocene stratovolcanoes

Geography

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External links