for an island name)). However, it is clearly of mainland Japanese origin. In fact, this word is completely absent from Okinawan ryūka poems/songs, and its usage is limited to waka poems, which were composed by Okinawan ruling elites. The first known reference to Uruma is a waka poem by an Heian-period aristocrat named Fujiwara no Kintō in the early 11th century. He compared a woman's coldheartedness to the incomprehensible speech of drifters from Ureung Island (迂陵島, identified as Ulleung Island) of Goryeo Kingdom. However, the association with Ulleung Island was soon forgotten because the reference to Goryeo (anachronistically called Silla by Kintō) was dropped when his poem was recorded in the Senzai Wakashū (1188). Thereafter waka poets treated Uruma simply as an island somewhere outside of Japan with an unintelligible language. As the same time, it evoked a sense of familiarity because the phrase Uruma no ichi (market in Uruma) was poetically associated with Mino Province in central Japan. From the viewpoint of mainland Japanese poets, Okinawa Island might have been an ideal referent of Uruma because, despite the exotic name of Ryūkyū, the first reference to Okinawan composed waka poems was as early as 1496. The first known identification of uruma as Okinawa Island can be found in the Moshiogusa (1513), but the association remained weak for some time. For example, Hokkaido, in addition to Okinawa Island, was referred to as Uruma in the Shōzaishū (1597). The mainland Japanese poetic practice was adopted by Okinawan waka poets in the late 17th century. The Omoidegusa (1700), a purely Japanese poetic diary by Shikina Seimei, is known for its extensive use of the word uruma. Naha Okinawa's northern neighbor, the Amami Islands, has the tradition of calling Okinawa Naha, the main port town of Okinawa Island and the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. For example, people of Okinoerabu Island use Nafa for Okinawa and Nafanchu for Okinawan people. They are less conscious about the distinction between Okinawa Island and Okinawa Prefecture. The Okinawan word for Okinawans, Uchinaanchu, is known to them, but they never identify themselves as Okinawans. Their autonym is Erabunchu. Like Okinawans, the people of the Amami Islands have no folkloristic term that covers both the Amami people and Okinawans. The Standard Japanese word, Okinawa, is borrowed into the languages of the Amami Islands. It is steadily replacing Naha''. References Links - Map of Ryūkyū-koku (1702), submitted to the Tokugawa