Yonaguni history

The Yonaguni is a small native pony of the southwest islands of Japan. In 1996 there were about seventy-five living Yonaguni ponies on East and North Ranches on Yonaguni Island, located on the west side of the Yaeyama Islands.
Little is known about the origin of the Yonaguni. Horses in Japan can generally be divided into two groups, larger specimens from Hokkaido and smaller individuals from Yonaguni. Many people believe that the small horses were introduced from the southern islands during the Jyomon Period, about two thousand years ago. Professor Ken Nozawa of Kyoto University claimed in 1983 that the gene characteristcs of the breed indicated relationship to the Cheju breed in Korea.