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The Amami Islands (奄美諸島, amami shotō^?) are part of the Ryūkyū Archipelago. They consist of:

• Amami Ōshima (奄美大島)
• Kikaigashima (喜界島)
• Kakeromajima　(加計呂麻島)
• Yoroshima (与路島)
• Ukeshima (請島)
• Tokunoshima　(徳之島)
• Okinoerabujima (沖永良島)
• Yoronjima (aka Yorontō unofficially) (与論島)

The islands are part of Kagoshima Prefecture, in the Kyūshū region of Japan. Its name derives from the Amamikiyo (アマミキヨ, Amamikiyo^?) or Amamiko (アマミコ, Amamiko^?), a goddess often futured in Ryukyuan legends.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Amami period 1.2 Aji period 1.3 Naha period 1.4 Yamato period 1.5 American period 1.6 After the restoration 2 Language 3 Culture 3.1 Music 3.2 Religion 4 Region 5 See also 6 External links

Islanders started to produce earthenwares from 6000 years ago, affected by Jōmon culture in Mainland Kyūshū. It first had similar styles to Japan, but they later produced Usuki Lower Style Earthenware, a style original to Amami.

Among Japanese literature, the islands first appeared in the 7th century. Nihon Shoki adverted to Amami-shima (海見嶋, Amami-shima^? "Amami Island") in 657, Amami-bito (阿麻弥人, Amami-bito^? "Amami people") in 682. Shoku Nihongi adverted to Amami (菴美, Amami^?) in 699 and Amami (奄美, Amami^?) in 714. All of these are believed to be the current Amami. The tenth kentō-shi mission (Japanese Imperial embassies to China) went to Tang Dynasty China via Amami Ōshima.

Among locals, this prehistoric period is called Amami period (奄美世, Aman'yu^?).

Agriculture passed on the islands around the 12th century, and the people shifted to farming from hunting. As agriculture made the divide between rich and poor, those with stronger powers eventually became the ruling class. They were called aji like in Okinawa, residing in castles called gusuku. Famous gusuku included Beru Gusuku in Kasari, Amami City, and Yononushi Gusuku in Wadomari. Stronger aji battled each other to expand their territories. There is a folklore that says some of Taira clan members, lost to the battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, fled to Amami Ōshima. Its historical accuracy is unknown.

This gusuku period is sometimes called Aji period (按司世, Ajin'yu^?), while others include this time into Amami period as well.

When Amami aji became strong enough in the islands, they started to pay tributes to stronger nations around. Okinawan book says Amami aji tributed to Eiso, the king of Chūzan in Sanzan period Okinawa. Okinoerabu and Yoron went under Hokuzan's control. However, since Okinawa itself was still unsettled with civil wars, they could not control the northern part of Amami Islands. Tokunoshima and further north island aji just paid tributes to Okinawa, and continued to control the islands by themselves. After 1429, Shō Hashi unified Okinawa Island, founding the Ryukyu Kingdom. Okinoerabu and further south islands were directly controlled by Ryukyu, while northern parts were also treated as the outer territories of the kingdom. The fourth king, Shō Sei, tried to occupy Amami Ōshima in 1537, but failed. The next king, Shō Gen, won the battle in 1571, and the whole islands went under Ryukyu's control. According to folklore, 3 gusuku and 4 communities fiercely resisted the invasion, and were all extinct.

This period is called Naha period (那覇世, Nahan'yu^?), after the capital city of Ryukyu.

Ryukyu's direct control didn't last long. Japanese Tokugawa shogunate planned to trade with Ming Dynasty China. They allowed Shimazu Tadatsune, a ruler of Satsuma Domain, to invade Ryukyu Kingdom, so that they can retain the ship route between Japan and China. In March 1609, Shimazu attacked the kingdom on Amami Ōshima, then Tokunoshima, Okinoerabu, and Mainland Okinawa. At the time, the king controlled all the guns in Ryukyu, while Shimazu force was the one that survived all the (gun) battles in Sengoku period. Shimazu easily won the battle within a month, and Ryukyu Kingdom made peace with Satsuma Domain.

Ryukyu Kingdom had troubles with Amami Islands even before the invasion by Satsuma, as the islanders often demonstrated independence movements from the kingdom. Ryukyu ceded the islands to Satsuma Domain. Satsuma started to directly rule the islands from 1613, sending a commissioner. However, it was still nominally treated as Ryukyu territory, and bureaucrats from the kingdom was dispatched too.

At first, Satsuma's administration was a mild one, but as the financial deterioration of the domain goes worse, the administration changed to a fierce exploitation. Satsuma let islanders plant sugarcane to make sugar, and sold it to the shogunate or merchants. Because of this monoculture, islanders were struck by severe famine when they had a bad harvest.

Under the hard times, Amami people found their joys in local liquors made from sugarcanes, awamori bought from Ryukyu, and folk songs sung with sanshin. Their folk songs evolved to something different from Ryukyu, which still comes down as a part of their culture.

In 1879, after Meiji Restoration, Amami Islands were incorporated into Ōsumi Province, and then into Kagoshima Prefecture. At the time of World War II, when there were fierce battles in Mainland Okinawa, more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers guarded the neighboring Amami Islands. Throughout the war, however, Amami Islands only had small scale airstrikes.

This period, until 1945, is called Yamato period (大和世, Yamaton'yu^?), after Yamato, Amami exonym for Mainland Japanese.

After Japanese defeat of the war, the islands were divided from the Mainland Japan, and went under American control. At the signing ceremony of surrender, Japanese force side found the document prepared by U.S. referred to Amami as "Northern Ryukyu". They thought it shows the American intention to cede the islands eternally from Japan, and claimed the islands belong to Kagoshima Prefecture. American side agreed, and confirmed the islands belonged to the prefecture.

In February 1946, Amami Islands were officially separated from Japan. In October, the Provisional Government of Northern Ryukyu Islands was founded, formed by local leaders. It changed its name to the Amami Gunto Government in 1950. However, under a democratic election, local people chose a governor who pledged the restoration to Japan. (The same thing happened in other Gunto Governments of Ryukyu, namely those of Okinawa, Miyakojima, and Yaeyama.) American administration (United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands, USCAR) did not like their choices, so reduced the power of Gunto Governments. In 1952, USCAR founded another governmental body called the Government of the Ryukyu Islands, which they could choose "local leaders" by themselves.

Amami people were dissatisfied with these controls by U.S. Moreover, Amami economy was battered because they were separated from Mainland Japanese market, while public funds of U.S. administration were mostly used for heavily damaged Mainland Okinawa. Amami Islands Homeland Restoration Movement, which had started right after the separation, became stronger. Among locals over 14 years old, 99.8% of them signed in a bid to the restoration. Some municipalities and communities hunger striked after the example of Mahatma Gandhi.

After Japan regained its sovereignty by the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, U.S. gave up administrating Amami, as the restoration movement there was fierce, while they didn't have many military bases. U.S. returned Tokara Islands in February 1952, and Amami Islands in December 25, 1953. U.S. government called it "a Christmas present to Japan".

This period is called American period (アメリカ世, Amerika-yu^?).

Even after the restoration to Kagoshima Prefecture, Okinawa (then Ryukyu) was still under American control until 1972. Because of this, Amami people who worked in Okinawa suddenly became "foreigners", making their situations difficult.

Japanese government promulgated Amami Islands Promotion and Development Special Measures Law. However, the economic gap between the islands and the mainland still exists to this day. The law did help people's lives by improving infrastructures such as roads. On the other hand, its bureaucratic system often caused unnecessary destruction of nature.^{[citation needed]}

In Amami Islands, Amami language and Kunigami language are traditional local speeches. Both of them belong to North Ryukyuan group of Ryukyuan languages. Although Ryukyuan languages belong to Japonic languages group, sharing the same root with Mainland Japanese, they are mutually unintelligible. There is a dispute about the status of these languages, with some thinking that these are different (independent) languages from Japanese, while others think these are merely dialects.

Amami language has Kikai dialect, North Amami dialect, South Amami dialect, and Tokunoshima dialect. Kunigami language has Okinoerabu dialect and Yoron dialect.

Just as anywhere else in Japan, standard Japanese is used in all the formal situations. The de facto common speech among locals under 60s, on the other hand, is Amami-accented Mainland Japanese called Ton-futsūgo (トン普通語, Ton-futsūgo^? lit. "Potato standard"). The speech is different from Uchinā-Yamatuguchi (Okinawan Japanese), an Okinawan-accented Mainland Japanese used in Okinawa. Ton-futsūgo is affected not only by standard Japanese, but also by Satsugū (Mainland Kagoshima) dialect and Kansai dialect.

As a part of Ryukyu cultural sphere, Amami culture is closer to that of Okinawa Prefecture, rather than to that of Mainland Kagoshima. However, the islands had different history from Okinawa as well. Okinawa, including Sakishima, had strong cultural impacts from China, whereas Amami had strong impacts from Mainland Japan. Because of this, Amami people themselves think their culture is not completely same as the one in Okinawa. Mainland Amami people treat the area between Kikai, Amami Ōshima, and Tokunoshima as the part of their own cultural sphere.

On the other hand, Yoron Islanders, just 22 km away from Mainland Okinawa, have much closer culture to Okinawa.

Their local folk songs are called shimauta. Although shima means "island" in Japanese, it means "community" in Amami. Thus shimauta literally means "communities' songs". Singers of shimauta are called utasha (lit. "singer"). Some utasha also sing pop songs as well, examples include Chitose Hajime, Kousuke Atari, and Anna Sato.

While Okinawan folk songs use the pentatonic scale of C, Db, Eb, G, Ab, Amami folk songs use the scale of C, D, E, G, A. Singers use falsetto voice when singing. Amami folk songs are hardly sold outside of the islands, except of mail order or Internet.

Some thinks the word shimauta originally referred to Amami folk songs only, but it is now mistakenly used for Okinawan folk songs, because Japanese rock band The Boom sung 1992 hit song called Shima Uta, which incorporated some Okinawan styles. Others argue the word was used for Okinawan folk songs as well even before 1992.

Each community has multiple shrines, while there are not many Buddhist temples. Like in Okinawa, female priests called noro exist, and the people worship the local religion.

The current tomb style is same as those in Mainland Japan, unlike those in Okinawa. However, there are tombs called Shiroma Tofuru Tombs, which were built 400 years ago, showing the style of Okinawan tombs before the current "house" style there.

• Its regional center is Amami City in Amami Ōshima.
• There are no universities or colleges in the islands. From 2004, The Graduate School of Humanistic-Sociological Sciences of Kagoshima University started satellite schooling in Amami City.
• There are repeaters of television and AM radio. Among FM stations, only NHK-FM has a repeater, but there is a local community FM station as well.
• There are two local newspapers, namely Nankainichinichi Shimbun and Ōshima Shinbun.

• Amami Rabbit, a rabbit endemic to Amami Ōshima and Toku-no-Shima
• Amami Woodcock
• Ryukyuan people

• (Japanese) Amaminchu.com
• (Japanese) Nankainichinichi Shimbun
• (Japanese) Central Gakki, Amami folk song distributor
• (Japanese) Amami FM
• Amami Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
• Japan Mint: Commemorative Silver Proof Coin of the 50th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Amami Islands to Japan

Coordinates: 28°16′N, 129°21′E