THE OSUMI ISLANDS - Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands - page 30

set of islets offshore. Of these twin capes, it could be said that Cape Ōtaké occupies Taneg-
ashima's southernmost eastern point and Cape Yoshinobu occupies its easternmost southern
point. Both capes are fully developed and covered with numerous administrative and service
buildings, a launch pad and other high-tech equipment of JAXA. Offshore, each cape peters
out to a series of large rocks. Coincidentally, in each case there are two separate collections of
rocks of each of the capes. We'll describe these four islet groups in our usual north to south
sequence.
YOSHINOBUZAKIIWA ( 吉信崎岩 Yoshino bu zaki-iwa. The more northerly of the twin capes
is Yoshinobu-zaki (Ōtaké-zaki is about a mile (1.5 kilometers to the south). Directly off Cape
Yoshinobu there are approximately 20 rocks in all. There is one batch of about a half dozen
large rocks (see photo page 24 ) to the southeast of the cape and around 15 more smaller ones
(not visible in the photo above), some 1,000 feet (300 meters) to the northeast.
A rocket on display at the Tanegashima Space Center.
Cape Yoshinobu and its offshore rocks.
The large rock islets start only 100 feet (30 meters) offshore and extend about 1,640 feet
(500 meters) to the south and east. They vary in shape and size from ovals 490 by 575 feet (75
by 175 meters) in size to more or less round islets about 500 feet (150 meters) in diameter.
The smallest ones in this batch measure close to 165 feet (50 meters) across.