March 20, 2025
I spent six days as a tourist at Amami Oshima Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture again in the second week of March. I had a very good time there.
One of things I newly learned there is that hamlets in narrow flat places which are located at the end of valleys facing the sea is called "shima" among the locals and they have been culturally different one another since the old times. For example, each small village has its own language and songs which are dissimilar to others. (The songs are called "shima uta," which does not mean "island song" but "village song," although a common Japanese word "shima" always means "island.") I hear that was because Amami Oshima did not have a road network at all and boats were the only means of transportation.
Many small villages in the ancient Japanese Islands must have been like those hamlets in Amami Oshima.