is a
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
located in
Kunigami District,
Okinawa Prefecture
is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
As of October 2016, the village has an estimated
population
Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...
of 3,024 and a
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
of 51 persons per km
2. The total area is .
Several censuses have established that this village has the highest longevity index in the world with a large percentage of the population being over 100 years old.
Geography
Ōgimi is located at the north of
Okinawa Island
, officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...
and faces the
East China Sea
The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...
on the western coast of the island. The village consists of forested flatland, which covers 78% of the area of the Ōgimi, and sharp, craggy cliffs which face the coast. The central coastal area of Ōgimi is bisected by
Shioya Bay.
Miyagi Island
Miyagi Island or Miyagijima (宮城島, Japanese language, Japanese: ''Miyagi-jima'', Okinawan language, Okinawan: ''Naagushiku-jima'') is an island located in the Yokatsu Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is also known as Takanaharijima ( ...
() spans much of the entrance of the bay, and the island is connected to the mainland by the Shioya Ōhashi Bridge.
Administrative divisions
The village includes seventeen wards.
*Esu (江洲)
*Janagusuku (謝名城)
*Kijoka (喜如嘉)
*Miyagi (宮城)
*Nerome (根路銘)
*Nūha (饒波)
*Ōganeku (大兼久)
*Ōgimi (大宜味)
*Oshikawa (押川)
*Shioya (塩屋)
*Shirahama (白浜)
*Taiho (大保)
*Takazato (田嘉里)
*Taminato (田港)
*Tsuha (津波)
*Uehara (上原)
*Yako (屋古)
Culture
The village is a centre of production of
Ryukyuan pottery.
The Shioya Ungami Sea Festival is held at Shioya Bay and other areas of Ōgimi in July. Observance of the festival dates back 400 to 500 years to the period of the
Ryukyuan Kingdom, and begins with prayers at an ''asagi'', or house of worship, by ''kaminchu'', or priestesses of the
Okinawan religion. The religious ceremonies are followed by
dragon boat race
A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
s. The Unjami Festival was designated an
Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties of Japan in 1997.
Cultural and natural assets
Ōgimi Village hosts five designated or registered tangible cultural properties and monuments, at the national, prefectural or municipal level.
*Name (Japanese) (Type of registration)
Cultural Properties
*Former Ōgimi Village Office Building (大宜味村役場旧庁舎) (National)
Natural Monuments
*Lantern trees Hernandia nymphaeifolia of Shioya-ufuncha (塩屋ウフンチャのハスノハギリ) (Municipal)
*Ōgimi Utaki fountain palm community Livistona chinensis (大宜味御嶽のビロウ群落) (Prefectural)
*Plate coral of Kijoka Itashiki Coast (喜如嘉板敷海岸の板干瀬) (Prefectural)
*Tanna Ugan plant community (田港御願の植物群落) (National)
Education
The village operates its public primary and junior high schools.
* Ogimi Junior High (
大宜味中学校)
* Ogimi Elementary (大宜味小学校)
** It formed in 2016 as a merger of four elementary schools.
The
Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education operates .
See also
*
Yanbaru
References
External links
*
Ōgimi official website
Villages in Okinawa Prefecture
{{Okinawa-geo-stub