Omemi

Omemi 青南國 Ōmēmi-kwani
Flag
Anthem: 榮へ、青南いー Ihe, Ōmēmi-ī 'Prosper, Omemi'
Seal
Capital	Antu
Official languages	Omemi language
Demonym(s)	Omemi
Government
• Afakobe	Name
Legislature	Kwokutai
Currency	Omemi gwen (GWN)
Website www.omemi.gov.om

Omemi (Omemi: 青南國; Ōmēmi-kwani; [oːmeːmikʷani]), known as Aominami (Japanese: [a̠o̞mʲina̠mʲi]) in older English sources, is an island nation in East Asia. It is located south of Kyushu, being the northernmost sub-archipelagos of the Ryukyu islands.

Omemi’s strategic position made it a major nexus of maritime trade. Merchants from Kyushu, the Ryukyus, Korea, and the Chinese coast frequented its harbors, exchanging ceramics, sulfur, timber, marine products, metals, textiles, weapons, and luxury goods. Its wealth, however, also made it vulnerable. Piracy shaped Omemi’s political culture and landscape: many coastal towns were heavily fortified, with stone sea walls, watchtowers, beacon systems, harbor chains, and cliffside refuges.

In 1872, the Japanese Empire forced the island back under its administration as the Aominami Domain. The domain system was then abolished in 1884, and Aominami was absorbed under Japanese administration as Aominami Prefecture.

Omemi gained independence from Japan in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, much to the chagrin of the fledgling Japanese government. Under this arrangement, the U.S. military was granted long-term basing and transit rights on Omemi, including naval anchorage, airfield access, communications stations, and the authority to maintain forces for the defense of the island and the wider western Pacific.

Names and etymology

Chinese scribes originally rendered the island’s name phonetically as 安保三南彌. The shorter poetic 青南 became common among Omemi’s literate classes because it was elegant, concise, and symbolically useful. 青 evoked the sea, youth, vitality, and the blue-green color of coastal waters, while 南 marked Omemi as a southern realm from the perspective of Korea and Japan, and as a southeastern maritime country from the perspective of China. In Japanese imperial usage after the nineteenth century, the name was commonly read as Aominami.

The expected, but incorrect, native reading of 青南 is *Abomyanomi, instead of Ōmēmi.

Religion

Omemi religious practices, like those in mainland Japan and the rest of the Ryukyu islands, is syncretic in nature. Its indigenous practices often blend together with practices of Shintoism, Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and more recently, Catholicism.

Culturally, Omemi indigenous beliefs hold women to be more spiritually clean. This has resulted in the creation of a distinct class of women known as ofyame, who are given unique spiritual leadership roles, such as temple stewards, advisors, and officiants for civic ceremonies.