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 Miyake Subprefecture,

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

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 ...

. , the village had 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 2,273, 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 41.1 persons per km². Its total area is .

Geography

Miyake Village covers the island of Miyakejima, in the Izu archipelago in the

Philippine Sea The Philippine Sea is a List of seas#Marginal seas by ocean, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, Western Pacific Ocean east of the list of islands of the Philippines, Philippine Archipelago (hence the name) and the List of seas#Largest seas ...

and the nearby uninhabited Ōnohara Islands, south of central

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Neighboring municipalities

*Tokyo Metropolis **

Hachijō, Tokyo is a town located in Hachijō Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,056, and a population density of 97.7 persons per km2. Its total area is . Electric power for the town is provided by a geothermal ...

** Kōzushima, Tokyo

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Miyake did not fully rebound following the island's evacuation in 2000.

History

It is uncertain when human settlement first began on Miyakejima, but the island was known to be inhabited since at least in the early

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

, and is mentioned in historical records for its many volcanic eruptions. The island was used as a penal colony during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. After the start of the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

, in 1878, the island came under the control of Tokyo-fu and was organized into five villages (Izu, Kamitsuki, Igaya, Ako and Tsubota) under Oshima subprefecture on October 1, 1923. Miyake subprefecture was created out of Oshima subprefecture on April 1, 1943. On August 31, 1945, during the Allies' occupation of Tokyo, ground gunners on Miyake-jima fired three shots at an American transport aircraft, with no casualties. These were to be amongst the last shots fired in the war. The three villages of Izu, Kamitsuki and Igaya merged on October 1, 1946, to form the village of Miyake, which was joined by Abo and Tsubota on February 1, 1956. The village was evacuated in the year 2000 due to volcanic eruptions, and the inhabitants were only allowed to return from 2005.

Economy

Fishing and seasonal tourism are the mainstays of the economy of Miyake.

Transportation

Airport

* Miyakejima Airport

Education

Miyake village operates a public elementary, Miyake Elementary School (村立三宅小学校), and a public junior high school, Miyake Junior High School (村立三宅中学校). The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education operates one high school, Miyake High School.

Local attractions

* Miyake is famous for its traditional ''

taiko are a broad range of Traditional Japanese musical instruments, Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese language, Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various J ...

'' performances, known as ''kamitsuki kiyari taiko''.

References

External links

Miyake Village Official Website
{{Authority control Villages of Tokyo Populated coastal places in Japan