Tobishima (Yamagata)

Tobishima
Native name: Japanese: 飛島
	Aerial photograph of Tobishima in 1976.
Geography
Location	Sea of Japan
Coordinates	39°11′40″N139°32′56″E / 39.19444°N 139.54889°E
Area	2.75 km2 (1.06 sq mi)
Length	2 km (1.2 mi)
Width	1 km (0.6 mi)
Coastline	10.2 km (6.34 mi)
Highest elevation	68 m (223 ft)
Highest point	Takamoriyama
Administration
	Japan
Prefecture	Yamagata
City	Sakata
Demographics
Population	275 (2005)
Pop. density	91 /km2 (236 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Japanese

Last updated March 07, 2019

Tobishima(飛島), is an inhabited island located in the Sea of Japan, administered part of Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. The island, 2.75 km² in area, had 275 inhabitants as of 2005. The island has no airport, and access is normally by ferry to the city of Sakata on the mainland. The islanders are dependent mainly on commercial fishing and seasonal tourism.

The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula and Russia. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Japan, Korea and Russia. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific Ocean. This isolation also reflects in the fauna species and in the water salinity, which is lower than in the ocean. The sea has no large islands, bays or capes. Its water balance is mostly determined by the inflow and outflow through the straits connecting it to the neighboring seas and Pacific Ocean. Few rivers discharge into the sea and their total contribution to the water exchange is within 1%.

Sakata is a city located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. As of October 2015, the city has an estimated population of 105,022, and a population density of 174 people per km². The total area is 602.97 square kilometres (232.81 sq mi).

Yamagata Prefecture is a prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of Japan. Its capital is Yamagata.

Geography

Tobishima is approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) by 1 kilometre (0.62 mi). It is located 39 kilometres (21 nmi) west of Honshu. The highest point is Takamori-yama ( 高森山 ) at 68 metres (223 ft)

Honshu is the largest and most populous island of Japan, located south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Straits. The island separates the Sea of Japan, which lies to its north and west, from the North Pacific Ocean to its south and east. It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian island of Java.

The island is mostly flat, with a gentle rise from the east coast to the west coast, the west coast is characterized by steep cliffs. The port facilities are therefore located on the east coast and along with most of the population. Due to the effects of the warm Tsushima current, the island has relatively mild weather year-round average annual temperatures of 12 °C; even snowfall of 10 cm is rare. The island is covered with evergreen deciduous trees, including Eurya japonica. The island also serves as an important nesting grounds for some 270 species of migratory birds.

Eurya japonica, known as East Asian eurya, is a 1-3.5 m tall shrub in the Pentaphylacaceae family found in eastern China, Korea, and Japan. It is used as an ornamental plant.

History

Tobishima has been populated for several thousand years, with archaeological finds from the early Jōmon period dated to 6000–7000 years ago. In the late Heian period, the island was controlled by the Abe clan, followed by the Kiyohara clan. In the Edo period, it was part of the holdings of the Sakai clan at Shonai Domain and an occasional port for the kitamaebune coastal trading vessels.

The Jōmon period is the time in Japanese prehistory, traditionally dated between c. 14,000–300 BCE, recently refined to about 1000 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a hunter-gatherer culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American scholar Edward S. Morse, who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated it into Japanese as jōmon. The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in East Asia and the world.

The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Although the Imperial House of Japan had power on the surface, the real power was in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful aristocratic family who had intermarried with the imperial family. Many emperors actually had mothers from the Fujiwara family. Heian (平安) means "peace" in Japanese.

The Abe clan was one of the oldest of the major Japanese clans (uji); and the clan retained its prominence during the Sengoku period and the Edo period. The clan's origin is said to be one of the original clans of the Yamato people; they truly gained prominence during the Heian period (794-1185), and experienced a resurgence in the 18th century. Abe is also a very common Japanese surname in modern times, though not everyone with this name is necessarily descended from this clan.

As of April 1950, the village of Tobishima and thus the island was annexed by the city of Sakata, Yamagata.

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References

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA). Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Japan Enroute. Prostar Publications (2005). ISBN 1577856511

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External links

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