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Yonabaru 与那原町 | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 Yonabaru Town Office | |
 Flag  Seal | |
 Location of Yonabaru inOkinawa Prefecture | |
  Yonabaru Location in Japan | |
| Coordinates:26°11′58″N127°45′17″E / 26.19944°N 127.75472°E /26.19944; 127.75472 | |
| Country | Japan |
| Region | Okinawa |
| Prefecture | Okinawa Prefecture |
| District | Shimajiri |
| Foundation | 1 April 1949 |
| Area | |
• Total | 5.18 km2 (2.00 sq mi) |
| Population (2024) | |
• Total | 19,817 |
| • Density | 3,825/km2 (9,910/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+09:00 (JST) |
| City hall address | 16 Ueyonabaru, Yonabaru-chō, Shimajiri-gun 901-1392 |
| Website | www |
| Symbols | |
| Fish | Japanese seabream |
| Flower | Hibiscus |
| Tree | Black ebony (Diospyros ferrea) |
Yonabaru (与那原町,Yonabaru-chō,Okinawan:Yunabaru) is atown inShimajiri District,Okinawa Prefecture,Japan. It is located at the southern end ofOkinawa Island, on the east coast, overlookingNakagusuku Bay.
As of 2024, the town has apopulation of 19,817 and apopulation density of 3,825 persons per km2.[1] The total area is 5.18 km2, making it the second smallest municipality in Okinawa.
Yonabaru is located 9 km east ofNaha City, on the eastern coast of the southern part ofOkinawa Island, alongNakagusuku Bay. With an area of 5.18 km2, it is the smallest municipality on Okinawa Island, and the second smallest inOkinawa Prefecture afterTonaki Village.[2]
The town is bordered on the south-east by a forest on a low hill (133m) called Amagoimui (雨乞森) and on the northwest by another called Untamamui (運玉森, 158 m). It mainly develops on flat lands between those hills and Nakagusuku Bay.[3]
The social banditry that took place in Untamamui is famous in Okinawa through the story of Untama Girū. It was dramatized in a film (Untama Girū) that received the Newcomer Award of theDirectors Guild of Japan in 1989 and the Caligari Filmpreis Award at theBerlin International Film Festival in 1990.[4]
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.[5] It was also an important junction point for the land transportation both toward the southern and central parts of the island (Shimajiri and Nakagami). However, after the war, it lost its harbour town characteristic.[6]
It is still nowadays an important junction point between the southern and central parts of the island for land transportation on the eastern coast.
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 (Nanjō City), around the Ōzato Castle Site Park, Ryūkyū limestone can be observed covering the strata of the Shimajiri Group.[7]
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.
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.
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.[2]
The town includes four wards with twelve settlements.[8]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 6,574 | — |
| 1955 | 7,318 | +11.3% |
| 1960 | 8,234 | +12.5% |
| 1965 | 8,740 | +6.1% |
| 1970 | 9,639 | +10.3% |
| 1975 | 12,017 | +24.7% |
| 1980 | 12,752 | +6.1% |
| 1985 | 13,311 | +4.4% |
| 1990 | 14,009 | +5.2% |
| 1995 | 14,850 | +6.0% |
| 2000 | 15,109 | +1.7% |
| 2005 | 15,343 | +1.5% |
| 2010 | 16,318 | +6.4% |
| 2015 | 18,410 | +12.8% |
| Source:Statistics Bureau[3] | ||
References to the area represented by the modern town of Yonabaru may be found in theOmoro Sōshi, which makes mention of "Yonaharu" and "Yonaha-bama".[9] According to theChūzan Seifu (中山世譜),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.[10]
Formerly part ofŌzato Magiri, with the abolition of the magiri in 1908, the area of Yonabaru became part ofŌzato Village. Arailway line toNaha opened in 1914 and with it came a period of economic growth. Talk during the earlyShōwa period of separatemunicipal status was interrupted by thePacific War and the foundation of Yonabaru Town had to wait until 1 April 1949.[9]
Yonabaru Town lists sixty-three tangible cultural properties and monuments, including nine ones designated or registered at the national, prefectural or municipal level.[11]
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