The nansei (southwest) or Ryukyu archipelago is a chain of islands sandwiched between the East China Sea and Pacific Ocean stretching 1,000 kilometers from the tip of Kyushu, Japan, to Taiwan. The chain is divided between two administrative districts known as ken, or prefectures (from the Latin praefectura). All islands of the Tokara, Amami, and Osumi groups to the north of the chain, are known collectively as the Satsunan Islands and fall within Kagoshima-ken. The remaining Okinawa, Miyako, Yaeyama, and Senkaku island groups to the south of the chain constitute Okinawa-ken.

With a land area of 2,274 square kilometers, Okinawa Prefecture consists of 160 islands, 49 of which are inhabited, and a large number of reefs and isolated rocks. Okinawa Island is by far the prefecture’s largest island (1,205.68 square kilometers), is home to over 90% of its population of 1.357 million, and serves as administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the region. Administratively, the island is split into three districts: Shimajiri, Nakagami, and Kunigami. Boundary-wise these are identical to the three principalities that existed prior to political unification under Kin Shou Hashi of Chuzan in 1429. Topographically speaking, Okinawa Island can be divided into north and south halves, the division made by drawing a line east to west at its narrowest part from Ishikawa City to Onna Village. The northern section is primarily rugged mountains. There is a central ridge of mountains with dissected terraces. The southern half has some lower mountains as well as terraces and coastal plains.

The largest island in Okinawa-ken is Okinawa. It is known as Okinawa hontou, or main island. Okinawa Island is, at its longest, 60 miles in length and at its narrowest 2 miles in width. From Okinawa, Japan is commonly referred to as the hondo, or main land. In Ryukyuan, Okinawa is pronounced as uchina. A person, or hito of Okinawa is known as an uchinanchu.[1] In the same tongue, a person from the Japanese main land can be referred to as a yamatonchu. Yamato is an ancient name for Japan, but was popularly used by anthropologists/folklorists during the latter part of the 19^th century to make a distinction between people of the main islands and peoples at the peripheries or beyond who became part of Japan after the formation of a modern nation state in 1868 and subsequent colonial expansion. 

As such, ethnic Japanese, or Yamato minzoku, were somewhat different from Ainu, Ryukyuans, Nivkhs (Amur River), and Oroks/Ulta (Sakhalin) who lived within the geographical boundaries of the Japanese state, and greatly different from the Koreans and Formosans (Taiwanese) who fell under Japanese rule as territories were incorporated. This would mean little, unless there was a ethnic pecking order determining how one was regarded and/or treated by the main body politic. This was the case in Japan. As Koji Taira recently argues: “After annexation in 1879, Okinawa’s distinctive history, culture, and language became reasons for the Japanese government’s ethnocidal assimilation policy toward Okinawa. Everything Okinawan was declared inferior and subjected to attempts for a complete makeover. Okinawans were labeled second-class subjects of the Empire of Japan. (There were third- and fourth-class subjects in the Empire, and so Okinawans’ second-class status was supposed to be a big favor.)”[2] Such issues will be explored in more detail as we work our way through Okinawa’s history.

To be clear from the outset, the location this course focuses on is Okinawa hontou. I do not deal with the islands to the north or south in any detail. This is not a history of the Ryukyus or Okinawa Prefecture. Perhaps next year I’ll offer a remote islands, or sakishima history element to the course.