Yonabaru, Okinawa


Yonabaru is a town in Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located at the southern end of Okinawa Island, on the east coast, overlooking Nakagusuku Bay.
As of 2024, the town has a population of 19,817 and a population density of 3,825 persons per km2. The total area is 5.18 km2, making it the second smallest municipality in Okinawa.

Geography

Yonabaru is located 9 km east of Naha City, on the eastern coast of the southern part of Okinawa Island, along Nakagusuku Bay. With an area of 5.18 km2, it is the smallest municipality on Okinawa Island, and the second smallest in Okinawa Prefecture after Tonaki Village.
The town is bordered on the south-east by a forest on a low hill called Amagoimui and on the northwest by another called Untamamui. It mainly develops on flat lands between those hills and Nakagusuku Bay.
The social banditry that took place in Untamamui is famous in Okinawa through the story of Untama Girū. It was dramatized in a film that received the Newcomer Award of the Directors Guild of Japan in 1989 and the Caligari Filmpreis Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1990.

Location

Until the Second World War, Yonabaru had a good natural harbour on Nakagusuku Bay, used by Yanbaru-sen ships. It was an important place for marine transportation and trade on the eastern coast of Okinawa Island. It was also an important junction point for the land transportation both toward the southern and central parts of the island. However, after the war, it lost its harbour town characteristic.
It is still nowadays an important junction point between the southern and central parts of the island for land transportation on the eastern coast.

Topography and Geology

If you exclude the land reclaimed on the sea, the topographical and geological features of the town can be divided into two groups. Most of the town corresponds to low hills of mudstone and sandstone of the Tertiary Shimajiri Group, with coastal lowlands along Nakagusuku Bay. However, at the boundary with Ōzato, around the Ōzato Castle Site Park, Ryūkyū limestone can be observed covering the strata of the Shimajiri Group.
As a consequence of this geological characteristics, most of the soils in the town are of the jāgaru type. Jāgaru soils are adapted to the cultivation of sugar cane. The muddy earth is also used as a resource for the red roof tiles that are a main production of the town.

Coastal Area

Until land was reclaimed on the sea, the coast was an area with quiet waves on Nakagusuku Bay, without much coral reef development. Until the Second World War, it was a spot fit for sea bathing with many nice sand beaches but since the water was really shallow, land started to be reclaimed on the sea after the war. This development on the sea still continues nowadays, with the development of the Nakagusuku Bay Harbour Marine Town Project conjointly with the neighbouring town of Nishihara.

Climate

The town, as the rest of Okinawa Island, has a subtropical climate, with really small seasonal temperature variations. The mean temperature is of 22.3 °C, the mean annual rainfall is of 1688 mm, with rainfalls mainly in spring and summer, although they can sometimes start earlier. Typhoons mainly come in summer and autumn.

Administrative divisions

The town includes four wards with twelve settlements.
  • Agarihama
  • Itarashiki
  • * Itarashiki
  • * Tōsoe
  • Ueyonabaru
  • Yonabaru
  • * Eguchi
  • * Hamada
  • * Mījima
  • * Minato
  • * Morishita
  • * Nakashima
  • * Ōmitake
  • * Yōbaru

    Neighbouring municipalities

  • Haebaru
  • Nanjō
  • Nishihara

    Demographics

History

References to the area represented by the modern town of Yonabaru may be found in the Omoro Sōshi, which makes mention of "Yonaharu" and "Yonaha-bama". According to the Chūzan Seifu, Shō Hashi, before becoming king, acquired iron from foreign ships that came to Yonabaru to trade, forged from this metal tools for farming, and gave these to the people.
Formerly part of Ōzato Magiri, with the abolition of the magiri in 1908, the area of Yonabaru became part of Ōzato Village. A railway line to Naha opened in 1914 and with it came a period of economic growth. Talk during the early Shōwa period of separate municipal status was interrupted by the Pacific War and the foundation of Yonabaru Town had to wait until 1 April 1949.

Cultural and natural assets

Yonabaru Town lists sixty-three tangible cultural properties and monuments, including nine ones designated or registered at the national, prefectural or municipal level.
  • Name

    Cultural Properties">Cultural Property (Japan)">Cultural Properties

  • Kuran Garden
  • Peace Memorial in Morishita
  • Sanshin, Makabi type, inscribed "Nishihira"
  • Tāta Aji's Tomb
  • War Victims Memorial in Itarashiki
  • War Victims Memorial in Morishita
  • Young Cherry Tree Memorial

    Folk Cultural Properties">Cultural Property (Japan)#Folk Cultural Properties">Folk Cultural Properties

  • Achiri-gā spring
  • Achiri Yūnushi Praying Site
  • Agarina Ufusu Praying Site
  • Eguchi Uganju Praying Site
  • Fire lion of Ueyonabaru
  • Fukashiku-kā spring
  • Funerary palanquin house of Tōsoe
  • Hi-nu-kan fire god altar of Ueyonabaru
  • Hirata-kā spring
  • Hōmishizā Rocks Praying Site
  • Ibi-nu-mē Praying Site in Itarashiki
  • Ijina Tun Praying Site
  • Itarashiki Iri-nu-kā spring
  • Itarashiki Kuruhiji-kā spring
  • Itarashiki Noro Tun Praying Site
  • Itarashiki Tomushi-kā spring
  • Itarashiki Uii-nu-kā spring
  • Kubadō Praying Site
  • Kufadō Sacred Site
  • Kumukujii Rock Sacred Site
  • Michindaki Sacred Site
  • Mī-ga spring
  • Miyā Residence Praying Site in Itarashiki
  • Naka-no-utaki Sacred Site in Tōsoe
  • Noro Dunchi Praying Site
  • North stone lion of Itarashiki
  • Nūru-gā spring Praying Site
  • Ōmitake Nāka-nu-kā spring
  • Ōmitake well/Ufunchiyaki well
  • Sou-nu-mashi Praying Site
  • Stone Lion 1 of Mījima
  • Stone lion 1 of Nakashima
  • Stone Lion 2 of Mījima
  • Stone lion 2 of Nakashima
  • Stone lion 3 of Nakashima
  • Stone lion of Ōmitake
  • Takikura Tun Praying Site
  • Tomari Rock in Itarashiki
  • Tōsoe Shicha-nu-kā spring
  • Tōsoe Uii-nu-kā spring
  • Uchibarushii Praying Site in Itarashiki
  • Udun'yama Praying Site in Yōbaru
  • Uē-gā spring
  • Ueyonabaru Mē-nu-kā spring
  • Ueyonabaru Tun Praying Site
  • Ueyonabaru Uii-nu-kā spring
  • Ueyonabaru well
  • Uii-nu-tun Praying Site in Morishita
  • Ujōro Praying Site
  • Usachi Ryūgū Shrine
  • Ūshi-nu-mē Praying Site
  • Ushita-kā spring Praying Site
  • Utaki Sacred Site / Yamagwā Sacred Site
  • Yonamine Tun Praying Site

    Historic Sites">Monuments of Japan#Designated monuments of Japan">Historic Sites

  • Okinawa Prefectural Railways Yonabaru Station Site

    Natural Monuments">Monuments of Japan#Designated monuments of Japan">Natural Monuments

  • Large bishop wood tree of Kufadō Sacred Site