Kofun burial mounds on
Tanegashima and two very old Shinto shrines on
Yakushima suggest that these islands were the southern border of the
Yamato state.[2]
Annals of the Nara period regard Tane-no-kuni as the name for all the
Ryukyu Islands,[3] including Tanegashima[4] and Yakushima.[5]
675 (Temmu 3): Ambassadors of "Tane no kuni" were received in the Japanese court.[6]
702 (Taihō 2): The Shoku Nihongi records, "
Satsuma and Tane broke the relation and disobey to the king's order. So (the government) sent an army, conquered them, counted the population, and placed the officials." This marks the establishment of the Satsuma and Tane Provinces.
^Beillevaire, Patrick. (2000). Ryūkyū Studies to 1854: Western Encounter, Vol. 1, p. 272, p. 272, at
Google Books; excerpt, "Im dritten Jahre der Regierung des Mikado Ten mu (674) kamen auch Gesandte von Tane no kuni an den japanischen Hof. Jakusima und das heutige Tanegasima waren die nördlichsten der mehrgenannten Südseeinseln...."; compare NengoCalc Temmu 3 (天武三年)