Okinawa
Okinawameans a “rope in the offing” (Japanese), and is the general
name given to a chain of approximately 140 islands and reefs, situated
south of Japan and north of Taiwan in the East China Sea. The islands
are divided into three separate geographical regions, known as the North-
ern, Central, and Southern Ryûkyûs. Okinawa itself is the largest island
in the chain and is located in the Central Ryûkyû region. The Southern
Ryûkyûs are separated from the Central and Northern Ryûkyûs by a
large expanse of open sea. Miyako Island, at the northernmost part of the
southern region, is some 282 kilometers away from Okinawa Island, in
the central region.
This oceanic divide and the Black Current, which runs from below the
Philippines in the south and sweeps northward past Japan, effectively sep-
arated the Ryûkyûs into two cultural units, one formed by the northern
and central regions and the other formed by the islands in the south. The
Sakishima Islands in the south are believed to have been inhabited as early
as 6000 B.C., but their culture appears to have been uninfluenced by their
northern neighbors for roughly 7,000 years. Japanese and Chinese artifacts
from the region date only to A.D. 1000. Habitation of the Northern and
Central Ryûkyûs occurred some 30,000 years ago and was undertaken by
the Yamashita dôkutsujin(Yamashita cavemen), who crossed the land
bridges that then existed between the Ryûkyûs and Japan.
The Okinawan Shell Mound Era lasted from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 616,
when the Yamato (Wa people of the Yayoi culture) of Kyûshû, the south-
ernmost island of Japan, sent thirty Ryûkyû islanders to the court at Nara
(Japan), ostensibly to learn about the advanced culture of Prince Shôtoku
Taishi. The Yayoi culture had been acquainted with the use of iron and
bronze tools and weapons since their social formation, about 300 B.C. And
while there does exist some evidence that the Northern Ryûkyû islanders
of Yakushima had knowledge of martial weaponry in A.D. 608, when some
1,000 were captured and enslaved by Sui Chinese explorers seeking the
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