Iki Island
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Iki Island (壱岐島) is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. The city of Iki is the centre of the local government. The island has three ports.
GeographyThe 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 and tobacco are planted. There is also an onsen (Japanese hot spring). Sea urchin is a delicacy there, as is the local Shōchū. Together with the neighbouring islands of Tsushima, they are collectively known as the Iki–Tsushima Quasi-National Park. HistoryAfter the Toi invasion, private trade started between Goryeo, Tsushima, Iki, and Kyūshū, but were halted with the by the Mongol Invasions of Japan of 1274 and 1281. However, the Mongols were halted from further aggression against Japan. The Koryosa (historian 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 (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.[1] 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.[2] See alsoExternal linksde:Iki (Insel) et:Iki saar es:Isla Iki ko:이키 섬 lt:Ikis (sala) ja:壱岐島 ro:Insula Iki |
