Izu Islands

The Izu Islands stretch southward from the Izu Peninsula into the Pacific. The traditional seven are Oshima, Toshima, Niijima, Kozushima, Miyakejima, Mikurajima and Hachijojima. Their scattered volcanic land offered very different resources from the rice plains of the mainland, while sea crossings tied island communities to Japanese ports. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Niijima, Miyakejima and Hachijojima were places of penal exile.

Hachijojima received Ukita Hideie in 1606 after his defeat on the losing side at Sekigahara. Another exile, Kondo Tomizo, arrived in 1827 and later compiled the Hachijo Jikki, an extensive account of island life. Exile was only one part of an economy shaped by food shortages and obligations to the mainland. Hachijo silk, especially the cloth known as kihachijo, served in payment of taxes in place of rice; cloth was also required to repay grain advanced during shortages. In 1796 an island-products exchange was established at Teppozu in Edo. Island households thus faced both the hazards of maritime supply and the demands of a government and market far across the water.