is an inhabited island located in northeastern

Ehime Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,334,841 and a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...

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 ...

, in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

between

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

and

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

. The island is part of 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 the archipelago are connected by the Nishiseto Expressway bridge system connecting Honshu an ...

archipelago, and is administratively the seat of the town of

Kamijima, Ehime 270px, Kamijima Town Hall 270px, Iwaki port is a town located in Ochi District, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 6,332 in 3780 households and a population density of 210 persons per km2. The total area of the ...

Geography

Yugeshima has a total area of . The island is mostly hilly, with its highest point at 210 meters above sea level. Much of the island consists of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

History

Yugeshima has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Kushiyama Kofun on Yugeshima is a

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

dating from the

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

. Around the end of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, the island was the center of a ''

shōen A was a field or Manorialism, manor in Japan. The Japanese language, Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese language, Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to th ...

'' landed estate ( Yuge Island Shōen ruins) controlled by retired

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the ''in ...

and was noted for its production of salt. The estate later became property of the temple of

Tō-ji , also known as is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Minami-ku, Kyoto, Minami-ku ward of Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 796, Tō-ji Temple was one of the only three Buddhist temples allowed in the city at the time it became the capital of Japan. As s ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

and its detailed records from the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

are regarded as a valuable historic resource. The island became part of Yuge Village in Ehime Prefecture, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on December 15, 1889. Yuge was elevated to town status on January 1, 1953. The town merged with the villages of Ikina, Iwagi and Uoshima (all from Ochi District) to become the town of Kamijima on October 1, 2004. The primary occupations on the island are centered on

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

References

External links

*
Kamijima Chamber of Commerce
Islands of Ehime Prefecture Geiyo Islands {{Ehime-geo-stub