Kikaigashima
- Japanese: 鬼界ヶ島 (Kikaigashima)
Kikaigashima is one of the Amami Islands, in the northern section of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago. The island was absorbed by the Ryûkyû Kingdom in the late 1460s, but was then conquered in 1609, along with much of the rest of the Amamis, by the Shimazu clan of Kagoshima domain, and remains part of Kagoshima prefecture today.
Early History
Remains of gusuku sites on Kikaigashima, along with other archaeological finds, serve as evidence for Amami/Ryûkyû cultural activity on Kikaigashima in the pre-modern period, related but distinctive in character from Japanese culture.
In the premodern period, Kikai was among the islands to which court nobles, prominent samurai, or other elites were sometimes exiled by the shogunate or Imperial court. The monk Shunkan, who was caught plotting a coup against Taira no Kiyomori, was famously exiled to Kikai in 1177.
In the 15th-16th centuries, forces of the Shimazu clan of Satsuma province, and those of the Ryûkyû Kingdom, both sought to expand into the Amamis. For a time in the mid-15th century, the people of Kikaigashima raised significant resistance against such Ryukyuan forces, leading King Shô Toku to decide in 1466 to lead the invasion force himself.[1] It was during this invasion that Ryûkyû is said to have first adopted the mitsu-domoe crest of Hachiman as the royal crest.
Early Modern Period
Kikaigashima was conquered by the Shimazu clan of Kagoshima domain in the early stages of the 1609 invasion of Ryûkyû, along with much of the rest of the Amami Islands. After that, the island came under Satsuma administration. While Satsuma assigned its own administrators to the island, they retained the political/geographic organization of the villages into magiri, as put into place by the Ryûkyû Kingdom. Village heads were known as okite (掟) and yohito (与人), as they had been under the Kingdom.[2] Satsuma policies in the Amamis forced the people of the islands to devote their energies almost exclusively to the cultivation and refining of sugar, which was then very heavily taxed. These policies have been compared to plantation practices in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world, and have been described as quite akin to "a structure of colonial extraction."[3]
Around 1800, the population of the island is believed to have been around 10,000 people. It is said that "the five grains" (i.e. all the major staples: rice, wheat, beans, awa millet, and kibi millet) were all grown on the island, but that the chief product grown there was sugar.[2]
Even as late as 1800, local customs remained strong on Kikai, without having given way to any significant degree of Japanization. A dialect of Amami language was spoken, and while Satsuma officials assigned to the island learned and used this local language, it is not mutually intelligible with Japanese.[2]
Modern Period
References
- ↑ Gregory Smits, "Examining the Myth of Ryukyuan Pacifism." The Asia-Pacific Journal 37-3-10 (September 13, 2010).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Kei, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô 31 (2006), 228.
- ↑ Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 95.
