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Iki Island

Iki Island

Overview
Iki Island (壱岐島) is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū
Kyushu
or Kyushu is the 3rd-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima...

 and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait
Tsushima Strait
is the eastern channel of the Korea Strait, which lies between Korea and Japan, connecting the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.The Tsushima Strait is the broader eastern channel to the east and southeast of Tsushima Island, with the Japanese islands of Honshū to the east and northeast, and...

, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait
Korea Strait
The Korea Strait is a sea passage between South Korea and Japan, connecting the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean...

. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture
Nagasaki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki.- History :Nagasaki Prefecture, a unification of the western half of the former province of Hizen, with the former island provinces of Tsushima, and Iki, has had close ties with foreign civilization for...

 of Japan
Japan
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The city of Iki
Iki, Nagasaki
is a city located at Iki Island in Nagasaki, Japan. It is located approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Fukuoka on mainland Kyūshū. The city consists of five inhabited and 17 uninhabited islands, and its entire area is within the Iki-Tsushima Quasi-National Park...

 is the centre of the local government. The island has three ports.

The island hosts a population of 33,202 within the 138.45 km² island, measuring 17km from the north-south direction and 14km in the east-west direction.
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Encyclopedia
Iki Island (壱岐島) is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū
Kyushu
or Kyushu is the 3rd-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima...

 and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait
Tsushima Strait
is the eastern channel of the Korea Strait, which lies between Korea and Japan, connecting the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.The Tsushima Strait is the broader eastern channel to the east and southeast of Tsushima Island, with the Japanese islands of Honshū to the east and northeast, and...

, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait
Korea Strait
The Korea Strait is a sea passage between South Korea and Japan, connecting the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean...

. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture
Nagasaki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki.- History :Nagasaki Prefecture, a unification of the western half of the former province of Hizen, with the former island provinces of Tsushima, and Iki, has had close ties with foreign civilization for...

 of Japan
Japan
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The city of Iki
Iki, Nagasaki
is a city located at Iki Island in Nagasaki, Japan. It is located approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Fukuoka on mainland Kyūshū. The city consists of five inhabited and 17 uninhabited islands, and its entire area is within the Iki-Tsushima Quasi-National Park...

 is the centre of the local government. The island has three ports.

Geography


The island hosts a population of 33,202 within the 138.45 km² island, measuring 17km from the north-south direction and 14km in the east-west direction. Agriculture is widely practiced by the local inhabitants, and crops including rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...

 and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or...

 are planted. There is also an onsen
Onsen
An is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. A volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth...

 (Japanese hot spring). Sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals that compose part of class Echinoidea. They are found in oceans all over the world. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple,...

 is a delicacy there, as is the local Shōchū
Shochu
is a distilled beverage native to Japan. It is most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice. Typically, it contains 25% alcohol by volume ....

.

Together with the neighbouring islands of Tsushima, they are collectively known as the Iki–Tsushima Quasi-National Park.

History


After the Toi invasion
Toi invasion
The Toi invasion was the invasion of northern Kyūshū by Jurchen pirates in 1019. Toi meant barbarian in the Korean language at the time....

, private trade started between Goryeo, Tsushima, Iki, and Kyūshū, but were halted by the Mongol Invasions of Japan
Mongol invasions of Japan
The ' of 1274 and 1281 were major military invasions and conquests undertaken by Kublai Khan to take the Japanese islands after the capitulation of Goryeo . Despite their ultimate failure, the invasion attempts are of macrohistorical importance, because they set a limit on Mongol expansion, and...

 of 1274 and 1281. However, the Mongols were halted from further aggression against Japan. The Koryosa (history of the Goryeo dynasty) mentions that in 1274, an army of Mongol troops, which included Korean soldiers, captured both Tsushima and Iki and killed a great number of islanders.

Iki became one of the major bases of Wokou
Wokou
Wokou or Japanese pirates were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the thirteenth century onwards...

 (Japanese pirates, also called wako) along with Tsushima and Matsuura.

Between the 1970s and 1980s, in particularly the town of Katsumoto, the islanders were notorious for the over-fishing of the local species of whales and dolphins. In view of the already endangered yellowtails, the local town government banned large-scale, commercial fishing of yellowtails after 1982.http://users.aber.ac.uk/rys3/mammals.htm

In 1977, the local fishermen invited television companies to film the mass slaughtering of dolphins. In response, activists heavily condemned the fishermen's acts of killing the dolphins.http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_031117_1.html

External links