Although the Ryukyu Islands appeared in written history as Japan's southern frontier, the name of Kikaijima was not recorded in early years. The
Nihongi ryaku (c. 11th–12th centuries) states that in 998
Dazaifu, the administrative center of
Kyūshū ordered
Kikajima (貴駕島) to arrest the
Nanban (southern barbarians), who in the previous year had pillaged a wide area of western Kyūshū. The
Nanban were identified as Amami islanders by the
Shōyūki (982–1032 for the extant portion). Accordingly, it is assumed that Dazaifu had a stronghold in the Kikaijima concerned. The
Shinsarugakuki, a fiction written by an aristocrat
Fujiwara no Akihira in the mid-11th century, introduced a merchant named Hachirō-mauto, who traveled all the way to the land of the
Fushū in the east and to Kika-no-shima (貴賀之島) in the west. It is also noted by scholars that the character representing the first syllable of
Kikai changed from "貴" (noble) to "鬼" (ghost) from the end of the 12th century to the early 13th century. Archaeologically speaking, the
Gusuku Site Complex, discovered in Kikaijima in 2006, rewrites the history of the Ryukyu Islands. The group of archaeological sites on the plateau is one of the largest sites of the Ryukyu Islands of the era. It lasted from 9th to 13th centuries and at its height from the second half of the 11th to the first half of the 12th century. It was characterized by a near-total absence of the native Kaneku Type pottery, which prevailed in coastal communities. What were found instead were goods imported from mainland Japan, China and Korea. Also found was the
Kamuiyaki pottery, which was produced in
Tokunoshima from the 11th to 14th centuries. The skewed distribution of Kamuiyaki peaked at Kikaijima and Tokunoshima suggests that the purpose of Kamuiyaki production was to serve it to Kikaijima. The Gusuku Site Complex supports the literature-based theory that Kikaijima was a trade center of the southern islands. After the fall of the Kamakura shogunate, the southern islands seem to have been transferred to the
Shimazu clan. It claimed the
jito of the Twelve Islands, which were limited to the Ōsumi and Tokara Islands. However, when
Shimazu Sadahisa, the head of the clan, handed over Satsuma Province to his son
Morohisa in 1363, he added the extra Five Islands as the territories to be succeeded, which seem to refer to the Amami Islands including Kikaijima. Kikaijima was conquered by the
Ryūkyū Kingdom. The
Haedong Jegukgi (1471), whose source was a Japanese monk visiting Korea in 1453, describes Kikaijima as a territory of Ryūkyū. An article of 1462 in the
Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which records an interview from a
Jeju islander who had drifted to Okinawa in 1456, states that Kikaijima was resisting Ryūkyū's repeated invasions. According to the
Chūzan Seikan (1650), King
Shō Toku himself pacified Kikaijima in 1466, claiming that Kikaijima had not paid tribute for years. As a result of
Satsuma Domain's conquest of the
Ryūkyū Kingdom of 1609, Kikaijima fell under the direct control of Satsuma. After the
Meiji Restoration it was incorporated into
Ōsumi Province and later became part of Kagoshima Prefecture. Following
World War II, although with the other Amami Islands, it was occupied by the
United States until 1953, at which time it reverted to the control of Japan. In 2018 resident Nabi Tajima, the last remaining person known to have been born in the 19th century, died in a local medical facility. ==Transportation==