38
opposite to the province of Ôsumi and to end with Hateruma, the most southerly of the Yayéyama group, which lies close to the 24th parallel of north latitude. Yayéyama is called Pachusan in Keith Johnston’s Royal Atlas, but that is not the name given to it by the natives. The ordinary maps of Japan do not include any of the islands south of Yaku no Shima.
Due west of the province of Satsuma lies the group called Koshigi jima, and north of this, close to Higo, the islands of Amakusa and Togi. Off Hizen, in a line stretching in a south-westerly direction, are Hirado, known to the early navigators as Firando, and the Gotô, or Five islands, namely, Fukuyé, Kuga, Naru, Wakamatsu and Nakatsushima. This group contains innumerable smaller islands besides these five. North again of these are situated Iki and Tsushima, each of which constitutes a province by itself. By them lay, in former times, the ordinary route from Japan to Corea. On the north-west coast lie the Oki group, consisting of one large and three small islands, which is a province of the Sanindô, and Sado, which also constitutes a province by itself.
The Inland Sea contains countless islands. The most note-worthy amongst these are Ôshima, or Yayoshima, off Suwô, Itsukushima or Miyajima, east and west Nomi-jima off Geishiu, and Shôdzu shima off Bizen.
Besides the five small islands on the west of the Hokkaidô, the Japanese claim Kunashiri and Etorofu, the largest of the Kurile islands.
Promontories of course abound along the Japanese coast. Beginning with the extreme north of the main island we have Riuhi zaki and Fujishi zaki in the Tsugaru Straits. Passing down the east coast we come next to Kuwa-ga-saki in Rikuchiu, close to the harbour of Miyako, Misaki near the port of Késen in Rikuchiu, Kinkazan, near Matsushima in Rikuzen, and Inuboyé no saki, wrongly called Inaboyé no saki in our charts, just below the mouth of the Toné gawa. Su saki in Awa, and Miura no misaki, called Capo Sagami by us, mark the entrance to the Bay of Yedo. Next come Cape Idzu,
