Kyushu and Okinawa

The region combines two worlds. Kyushu, the third-largest of Japan's four main islands, is divided into seven prefectures — Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Ōita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima — and is a land of calderas, hot springs and old port cities. South of it, the Nansei Islands curve for over a thousand kilometres through the East China Sea, from the Ōsumi and Amami groups belonging to Kagoshima to the islands of Okinawa Prefecture, which until 1879 formed the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Close to Korea and China, northern Kyushu has been Japan's gateway to the continent since rice farming arrived. Nagasaki was for two centuries the only port where Dutch and Chinese traders were admitted, and the region absorbed Christianity, Western science and industry earlier than most of Japan. Satsuma in the south supplied many of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration.

Okinawa, by contrast, developed as an independent maritime kingdom with its own language, religion and court culture before being incorporated into Japan; it experienced the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 and 27 years of US administration. Together the region offers some of Japan's most varied landscapes — from the Aso caldera and the smoking Sakurajima to the ancient cedar forests of Yakushima and the coral reefs of the Kerama and Yaeyama islands.

Kyushu is mountainous at its core: the Kyushu Mountains run across the island from north-east to south-west, separating the northern plains of Fukuoka and Saga from the south. A chain of volcanoes crosses it from north to south — Kujū and Aso, whose caldera is one of the largest in the world, Unzen on the Shimabara Peninsula, Kirishima, and the Aira caldera with Sakurajima in Kagoshima Bay. Hot springs are everywhere, and Ōita Prefecture has more springs and a greater flow of hot water than any other prefecture. The coast is deeply indented in the west, with the Ariake Sea, the Amakusa islands and the archipelagos of Nagasaki, and smoother along the Pacific shore of Miyazaki.

The Nansei Islands form an arc between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. The northern islands include the granite mountain island of Yakushima, whose Miyanoura-dake (1,936 m) is the highest peak in the region, and the forested volcanic Tokara chain. Further south lie Amami-Ōshima and Tokunoshima, then Okinawa Island and the Miyako and Yaeyama groups, fringed by coral reefs; Yonaguni, the westernmost inhabited island of Japan, lies about 110 km from Taiwan.

Northern and central Kyushu have a humid subtropical climate with hot, wet summers, a pronounced rainy season from June to July and mild winters, though snow falls in the mountains. Southern Kyushu is warmer and among the rainiest parts of Japan, and Yakushima receives exceptional rainfall on its mountains. The region lies on the main path of typhoons, most frequent from August to September. Okinawa and the Amami Islands are subtropical, frost-free and humid, with a rainy season that begins and ends about a month earlier than on the main islands; the sea stays warm enough for swimming for much of the year.

Wet-rice farming and metalworking reached Japan through northern Kyushu in the first millennium BCE, and the region hosted the early states described in Chinese chronicles. From the late 7th century the Dazaifu governed Kyushu and managed foreign relations; Hakata became the leading international port and repelled the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281. In 1543 Portuguese traders reached Tanegashima with firearms, and in 1549 Francis Xavier landed at Kagoshima; Christianity spread widely in Kyushu until its suppression, the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637–38 and the long survival of Hidden Christian communities. During the period of national isolation Nagasaki's Dejima was Japan's window to Europe.

In the 19th century the domains of Satsuma and Saga pioneered Western technology, and Satsuma men led the Meiji Restoration before the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 ended samurai resistance. Coal mining, steel at Yawata and shipbuilding at Nagasaki made Kyushu an industrial heartland. On 9 August 1945 Nagasaki was destroyed by an atomic bomb.

The Ryukyu Kingdom, unified in the 15th century, prospered as a trading state with tributary ties to China. Satsuma invaded it in 1609, and in 1879 Japan annexed it as Okinawa Prefecture. The Battle of Okinawa from April to June 1945 killed a large part of the civilian population. The US administered Okinawa until its return to Japan on 15 May 1972, and a large share of the US military facilities in Japan remains concentrated there, a continuing political issue.

Kyushu's cultural landscape is shaped by its long contact with Asia and Europe: pottery traditions founded by Korean potters in Arita, Karatsu and Satsuma; the Chinese-influenced festivals and food of Nagasaki; Christian churches and Hidden Christian villages; and the great float festivals of Hakata and Karatsu. Mythology also looms large — Takachiho in Miyazaki is associated with the descent of the gods and the origins of the imperial line. The region is the heartland of shōchū, distilled from sweet potato, barley or rice.

Okinawan culture is distinct: the Ryukyuan languages, recognised by UNESCO as endangered; the three-stringed sanshin and classical court dance; the eisa drum dance at Bon; bingata textiles and Tsuboya pottery; a religion centred on ancestors and sacred groves (utaki) led by female priestesses; and karate, which developed on Okinawa before spreading to Japan and the world.