is a mountain located on Ie Island in

Ie, Okinawa is a village located in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The village lies on the island of Iejima. As of October 2016, the village has an estimated population of 4,192 and the density of 180 persons per km². Ie is in a period of s ...

. The mountain rises on Iejima to the northwest of

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 ...

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 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 b ...

. The outline of Mount Gusuku can be clearly seen from the

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 VillageOkina ...

on Okinawa Island and

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 nort ...

. The mountain has historically served as a nautical landmark and appears in nautical charts from the medieval period.

Etymology

The

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

reading for the mountain is "Shiro-yama;" however, in Okinawan, it is pronounced "Gusuku-yama." The meaning of in both languages is "castle." In

Kunigami is a village in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and villages of Higashi and Ōgimi to the south. As of 2015, the village ...

, 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 offscrape phenomenon: an older level of

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 mater ...

was displaced by newer

to form an admixture of the two.

Utaki

Mount Gusuku is a site considered sacred in the

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 ...

. An ''

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 te ...

'', or shrine of the Ryukyuan religion, is located halfway to the summit of the mountain, and the path leading to the shrine is marked by ''

torii A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a ''torii'' at the entrance is usually the simplest ...

'' gates. Historically the ''utaki'' at Mount Gusuku has been utilized for prayers for safe sea voyages and crops.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gusuku Mountains of Okinawa Prefecture