Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ie Island's rich productive farmland as seen from the top of Mt Gusuku.
For a relatively small place Ie has a large population, a little over 5,100. Why is this island
so highly populated whereas others, equal in size or larger, are so empty? Of course, there is
tourism, but the real answer lies in agriculture. Other than the marine training base, almost
every square meter is planted with some type of desirable agricultural product. With one ex-
ception, Gusukuyama, which we'll mention below, the island is mostly flat, easy for farming.
Most fortuitously it also has exceptionally rich soil. You'll see all kinds of crops, not just sug-
ar cane, on Iejima. Local farmers grow sweet potatoes, peanuts, chrysanthemums, hi-grade
tobacco for the Japanese cigarette industry and “logan,” a traditional Okinawan vegetable.
One of the island's best-known products combines two of its farm goods, sugar cane and
peanuts, into brown sugar-coated peanuts. Try them, they're a real treat. Farmer-ranchers
also raise a variety of the black Ishigaki/Kobé beef cattle. You'll see them grazing here and
there. Thus, Ie Island supports a fairly large population, which is not the case on some of the
other Ryukyu Islands. Although many residents congregate in Ie village, adjacent to the port,
wherever you turn you find houses and people living all over this pretty little island.
Ie has several worthwhile sights, but its most famous attraction is seasonal: the spring Lily
Festival. Easter lilies (
テッポウユリ
;
teppo-yuri
) are from southern Japan and the Ryukyus
and several islands specialize in them. Ie is one of them. Every year, from about the middle
of April until the beginning of May, hundreds of thousands of lilies bloom at Lily Field Park
(
リリー・フィールド公園
; Rirīfīrudo kōen), located alongside the northeastern shore. It's a
marvelous spectacle and people from all over Japan flock to see it.
For many visitors the island's most famous year-round and permanent sight is Castle/
Fortress Mountain, otherwise known as Mt Gusuku (
城山
; Gusuku-yama), although we're
not finished with its names because
gusuku
is an Okinawan term. People from Japan would
pronounce the first Kanji character as
shiro
, as in Shiro-yama (“Castle Mountain”). If that's
not enough, Ie residents, in their dialect, call it Ijimatatcchū (
イージマ タッチュー
), which
similarly translates as “Ie Fortress Mountain.”
