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Yonabaru, Okinawa

Coordinates: 26°11′58″N 127°45′17″E / 26.19944°N 127.75472°E / 26.19944; 127.75472
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Yonabaru
与那原町
Town
Yonabaru Town Office
Yonabaru Town Office
Flag of Yonabaru
Flag
Official seal of Yonabaru
Seal
Location of Yonabaru in Okinawa Prefecture
Location of Yonabaru in Okinawa Prefecture
Yonabaru is located in Japan
Yonabaru
Yonabaru
Location in Japan
Coordinates: 26°11′58″N 127°45′17″E / 26.19944°N 127.75472°E / 26.19944; 127.75472
CountryJapan
RegionOkinawa
PrefectureOkinawa Prefecture
DistrictShimajiri
Foundation1 April 1949
Area
 • Total5.18 km2 (2.00 sq mi)
Population
 (2024)
 • Total19,817
 • Density3,825/km2 (9,910/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+09:00 (JST)
City hall address16 Ueyonabaru, Yonabaru-chō, Shimajiri-gun
901-1392
Websitewww.town.yonabaru.okinawa.jp (in Japanese)
Symbols
FishJapanese seabream
FlowerHibiscus
TreeBlack ebony (Diospyros ferrea)

Yonabaru (与那原町, Yonabaru-chō, Okinawan: Yunabaru) is a town in Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located at the southern end of Okinawa Island, on the east coast, overlooking Nakagusuku Bay.

As of 2024, the town has a population of 19,817 and a population density of 3,825 persons per km2.[1] The total area is 5.18 km2, making it the second smallest municipality in Okinawa.

Geography

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Yonabaru is located 9 km east of Naha City, on the eastern coast of the southern part of Okinawa Island, along Nakagusuku Bay. With an area of 5.18 km², it is the smallest municipality on Okinawa Island, and the second smallest in Okinawa Prefecture after Tonaki Village.[2]

The town is bordered on the south-east by a forest on a low hill (133m) called Amagoimui (雨乞森) and on the northwest by another called Untamamui (運玉森, 158 m). It mainly develops on flat lands between those hills and Nakagusuku Bay. [3]

The social banditry that took place in Untamamui is famous in Okinawa through the story of Untama Girū. It was dramatized in a film (Untama Girū) that received the Newcomer Award of the Directors Guild of Japan in 1989 and the Caligari Filmpreis Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1990.[4]

Location

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Until the Second World War, Yonabaru had a good natural harbour on Nakagusuku Bay, used by Yanbaru-sen ships. It was an important place for marine transportation and trade on the eastern coast of Okinawa Island.[5] It was also an important junction point for the land transportation both toward the southern and central parts of the island (Shimajiri and Nakagami). However, after the war, it lost its harbour town characteristic. [6]

It is still nowadays an important junction point between the southern and central parts of the island for land transportation on the eastern coast.

Topography and Geology

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If you exclude the land reclaimed on the sea, the topographical and geological features of the town can be divided into two groups. Most of the town corresponds to low hills of mudstone and sandstone of the Tertiary Shimajiri Group, with coastal lowlands along Nakagusuku Bay. However, at the boundary with Ōzato (Nanjō City), around the Ōzato Castle Site Park, Ryūkyū limestone can be observed covering the strata of the Shimajiri Group.[7]

As a consequence of this geological characteristics, most of the soils in the town are of the jāgaru type. Jāgaru soils are adapted to the cultivation of sugar cane. The muddy earth is also used as a resource for the red roof tiles that are a main production of the town.

Coastal Area

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Until land was reclaimed on the sea, the coast was an area with quiet waves on Nakagusuku Bay, without much coral reef development. Until the Second World War, it was a spot fit for sea bathing with many nice sand beaches but since the water was really shallow, land started to be reclaimed on the sea after the war. This development on the sea still continues nowadays, with the development of the Nakagusuku Bay Harbour Marine Town Project conjointly with the neighbouring town of Nishihara.

Climate

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The town, as the rest of Okinawa Island, has a subtropical climate, with really small seasonal temperature variations. The mean temperature is of 22.3°C, the mean annual rainfall is of 1688 mm, with rainfalls mainly in spring and summer, although they can sometimes start earlier. Typhoons mainly come in summer and autumn.[2]

Administrative divisions

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The town includes four wards with twelve settlements.[8]

  • Agarihama (東浜)
  • Itarashiki (板良敷)
    • Itarashiki (板良敷)
    • Tōsoe (当添)
  • Ueyonabaru (上与那原)
  • Yonabaru (与那原)
    • Eguchi (江口)
    • Hamada (浜田)
    • Mījima (新島)
    • Minato (港)
    • Morishita (森下)
    • Nakashima (中島)
    • Ōmitake (大見武)
    • Yōbaru (与原)

Neighbouring municipalities

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Demographics

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Census data
YearPop.±%
1950 6,574—    
1955 7,318+11.3%
1960 8,234+12.5%
1965 8,740+6.1%
1970 9,639+10.3%
1975 12,017+24.7%
1980 12,752+6.1%
1985 13,311+4.4%
1990 14,009+5.2%
1995 14,850+6.0%
200015,109+1.7%
200515,343+1.5%
2010 16,318+6.4%
2015 18,410+12.8%
Source: Statistics Bureau [3]

History

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Aerial view of the former Yonabaru Airfield

References to the area represented by the modern town of Yonabaru may be found in the Omoro Sōshi, which makes mention of "Yonaharu" and "Yonaha-bama".[9] According to the Chūzan Seifu (中山世譜), Shō Hashi, before becoming king, acquired iron from foreign ships that came to Yonabaru to trade, forged from this metal tools for farming, and gave these to the people.[10]

Formerly part of Ōzato Magiri, with the abolition of the magiri in 1908, the area of Yonabaru became part of Ōzato Village. A railway line to Naha opened in 1914 and with it came a period of economic growth. Talk during the early Shōwa period of separate municipal status was interrupted by the Pacific War and the foundation of Yonabaru Town had to wait until 1 April 1949.[9]


References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yonabaru, Okinawa.
  1. ^ [1]与那原町　地区別人口集計表　令和 6年 9月30日現在(処理日)
  2. ^ a b "与那原町の紹介". 与那原町ホームページ (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  3. ^ [2]与那原町緑の基本計画
  4. ^ "日本復帰直前の沖縄を描いたマジックリアリズム 公開35周年「ウンタマギルー」8月23日から1週間緊急再上映！ : 映画ニュース". 映画.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  5. ^ "大正時代、港に集う「山原船」 北部のまきを南部へ 南部のみそやしょうゆを北部へ | 琉球から沖縄へ 続よみがえる古里". 沖縄タイムス＋プラス (in Japanese). 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  6. ^ 与那原町史編集委員会 (1988). 与那原町史序説・むかし与那原 (in Japanese). 与那原町役場.
  7. ^ 中村, 真也; 佐々木, 慶三; 木村, 匠; 宜保, 清 (2012). "亜熱帯湿潤地形の発達と地すべり－沖縄島，島尻層群地域－" [Topographic features and landslides in humid subtropical region －Shimajiri Group, Okinawa Island, Japan－]. Landslides - Journal of the Japan Landslide Society. 49 (5): 237–250.
  8. ^ "沖縄県 島尻郡与那原町の郵便番号 - 日本郵便". www.post.japanpost.jp. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  9. ^ a b 与那原町の紹介 [Yonabaru Town: An Introduction] (in Japanese). Yonabaru Town. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  10. ^ 与那原町 [Yonabaru Town]. Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei (in Japanese). Heibonsha. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
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