History
The first possible mentions of the islands are in the Annals of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shi Huang heard of "happy immortals" living on the Eastern Islands, so he sent expeditions there to find the source of immortality, to no avail. While some purport that these expeditions reached Japan and launched a social and agricultural revolution, the same events are marked in Ryukyuan folklore on Kudaka Island. The Eastern Islands are again mentioned as the land of immortals in the Annals of the Han Dynasty.
In 601, the Chinese sent an expedition to the "Country of Liuqiu" (流求國). They noted that the people were small but pugnacious. The Chinese couldn't understand the local language and returned to China. In 607, they sent another expedition to trade, and brought back one of the islanders. A Japanese embassy was in Loyang when the expedition returned, and one of the Japanese exclaimed that the islander wore the dress and spoke the language of Yaku Island. In 610, a final expedition was sent with an army that demanded submission to the Chinese Emperor. The islanders fought the Chinese, but their "palaces" were burned and "thousands" of people were taken captive, and the Chinese left the island.
The island chain appeared in Japanese written history as Southern Islands (南島 Nantō). The first record of the Southern Islands is an article of 618 in the Nihonshoki (720) which states that people of Yaku (掖玖,夜勾) followed the Chinese emperor's virtue. In 629, the imperial court dispatched an expedition to Yaku. Yaku in historical sources was not limited to modern-day Yakushima but seems to have covered a broader area of the island chain. In 657, several persons from Tokara (都貨邏, possibly Dvaravati) arrived at Kyushu, reporting that they had first drifted to Amami Island (海見島 Amamijima), which is the first attested use of Amami.
Articles of the late 7th century give a closer look at the southern islands. In 677, the imperial court gave a banquet to people from Tane Island (多禰島 Tanejima). In 679, the imperial court sent a mission to Tane Island. The mission carried some people from the southern islands who were described as the peoples of Tane, Yaku, and Amami (阿麻弥) in the article of 682. According to the Shoku Nihongi (797), the imperial court dispatched armed officers in 698 to explore the southern islands. As a result, people of Tane, Yaku, Amami and Dokan visited the capital (then Fujiwara-kyō) to pay tribute in the next year. Historians identify Dokan as Tokunoshima of the Amami Islands. An article of 714 reports that an investigative team returned to the capital, together with people of Amami, Shigaki (信覚), and Kumi (球美) among others. Shigaki should be Ishigaki Island of the Yaeyama Islands. Some identify Kumi as Iriomote Island of the Yaeyama Islands because Komi is an older name for Iriomote. Others consider that Kumi corresponded to Kume Island of the Okinawa Islands. Around this time "Southern Islands" replaced Yaku as a collective name for the southern islands.
In the early 8th century, the northern end of the island chain was formally incorporated into the Japanese administrative system. After a rebellion was crushed, Tane Province was established around 702. Tane Province consisted of four districts and covered Tanegashima and Yakushima. Although the tiny province faced financial difficulties from the very beginning, it was maintained until 824 when it was merged into Ōsumi Province.