:Tokara Islands

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One theory{{By whom|date=July 2024}} holds that the name "Tokara" was derived from tohara, or "distant sea area", as viewed from Okinawa. Another theory{{By whom|date=July 2024}} states that the name come from the Ainu word tokap, which means "breast". The southernmost inhabited island in the archipelago, Takarajima, has a mountain, Megamiyama (lit. Goddess Mountain) with such a shape.

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Mention is made in the Shoku Nihongi under an entry for the year 699 of an island called "Tokan", which is usually identified with Tokara, together with the islands of Tane, Yaku and Amami, although Tokan is also sometimes identified with Tokunoshima, an island approximately {{convert|150|km|mi|abbr=off}} away. (While an entry in the earlier Nihon Shoki for the year 654 mentions a "Tokara Country", Tokara no kuni, it is a reference to the Tokhara region of Central Asia, rather than the Tokara Islands.) During the 15th and 16th centuries, the islands came under the control of the Shimazu clan of Satsuma Domain and the Ryukyu Kingdom. Ryukyu ceded its territory in the Tokara Islands to Satsuma in 1611, which was confirmed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1624.

In 1908, the islands were administratively organized into Jitto Village, literally "Ten Islands", of which seven were inhabited. After World War II, from 2 February 1946 all of the Satsunan islands south of 30th Latitude, including the Tokara Islands, were placed under United States military administration as part of the Provisional Government of Northern Ryukyu Islands. However, the three northern inhabited islands in the archipelago, Iōjima, Kuroshima and Takeshima, remained under the control of Japan, and were placed under the administration of the village of Mishima. The remaining Tokara Islands reverted to Japan on 10 February 1952 and are now administered as the village of Toshima.

The islands have been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support populations of Japanese wood pigeons, Ryukyu green pigeons, Ijima's leaf-warblers, Izu thrushes and Ryukyu robins.{{cite web |url=http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/tokara-islands-iba-japan|title= Tokara Islands|author= |date=2021|website= BirdLife Data Zone|publisher= BirdLife International|access-date= 1 February 2021}}

File:nakanoshima kakou.jpg

File:Tokarauma otake.jpg

• National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA). Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Japan Enroute. Prostar Publications (2005). {{ISBN|1577856511}}

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{{commons category|Tokara Islands}}

• {{Wikivoyage-inline}}
• [http://www.tokara.jp/ Official website in Japanese]
• [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/japan/txu-oclc-6900707-nh52-11.jpg Topographic Map 1:250.000]

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Category:Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture

Category:Archipelagoes of Japan

Category:Satsunan Islands

Category:Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean

Category:Important Bird Areas of the Nansei Islands