| Yaeyama Islands | |
| Local Name: | --> |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Map: | Japan |
| Label Position: | top |
| Location: | Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates: | 24.3631°N 123.7464°W |
| Archipelago: | Sakishima Islands |
| Waterbody: | East China Sea |
| Total Islands: | 23 |
| Major Islands: | Ishigaki Island, Iriomote Island, Yonaguni Island |
| Area Km2: | 587.16 |
| Elevation M: | 525.5 |
| Highest Mount: | Mount Omoto |
| Country: | Japan |
| Country Admin Divisions Title: | Prefecture |
| Country Admin Divisions: | Okinawa Prefecture |
| Population: | 53,627 |
| Population As Of: | March 31, 2011 |
| Density Km2: | 91 |
The Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島 Yaeyama-rettō, also 八重山諸島 Yaeyama-shotō, Yaeyama: Yaima, Yonaguni: Daama, Okinawan: Yeema, Northern Ryukyuan: やへま Yapema) are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and cover 591.46km2. The islands are located southwest of the Miyako Islands, part of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago. The Yaeyama Islands are the remotest part of Japan from the main islands and contain Japan's most southern (Hateruma) and most western (Yonaguni) inhabited islands. The city of Ishigaki serves as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Yaeyama Islands. On maps dating to the 1700s, the Yaeyama Group of Islands appears as the "Majico Sima Group",[1] [2] "Nambu-soto Islands",[3] "Nambu Soto",[4] and the "Taipin Islands".[5]
The name Yaeyama literally means "multilayered mountains", and is related to the native name Yaima in Yaeyama, which possibly comes from a reconstructed Proto-Ryukyuan form *jajama (pronounced *yayama with tone class A).[6]
The Yaeyama Islands are home to numerous species of subtropical and tropical plants and mangrove forests.[7] The islands produce sugarcane and pineapples.
Coral reefs around the islands are ideal habitats for dolphins, sea turtles, and larger fish such as manta rays and whale sharks. Before being wiped out by humans, whales and dugongs were common as well, and Yaeyama once had the largest population of dugongs in the Ryukyu Islands. On Aragusuku Island, there is an utaki or sacred place that specially enshrines hunted dugongs with their skulls, but non-residents are not permitted to enter unless they receive special permission from inhabitants, and it is said that anyone without permission will be driven out by force.
The islands have been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support populations of resident black wood pigeons and Ryukyu green pigeons, wintering ruddy turnstones, migrating grey-tailed tattlers, and breeding colonies of bridled, roseate and black-naped terns.[8]
Satakentia liukiuensis, the Yaeyama palm, is only species in the genus Satakentia, is endemic to the two islands of Ishigaki and Iriomote in the Yaeyama Islands.[9]
The islands form the southern part of the volcanic Ryukyu Islands. The administrative division of Yaeyama District covers all of the Yaeyama Islands, except Ishigaki and the disputed Senkaku Islands.
The Yonaguni language is the indigenous language of the island of Yonaguni. The Yaeyama language is the indigenous language of the rest of the islands. Japanese is now the native language of most of the population.
The Yaeyama Islands are home to the production of traditional Okinawan textiles.
14 July: Mushaama Festival. On Hateruma Island, this harvest festival is celebrated during Obon. It features a parade of the local fertility god Miruku and his children (the local children), shishi ("lion") dances, and staff dances.