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Kagoshima is the capital of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southern tip of Kyushu in Japan, a city on Kinko Bay famous for Sakurajima, the smoking volcano that rises just across the water from its centre. Ash from its eruptions sometimes dusts the streets, and residents treat the mountain as part of daily life.
For centuries this was the seat of the Shimazu clan, lords of the Satsuma domain. Francis Xavier landed here in 1549, and in the 19th century the domain built some of Japan's first Western-style factories, the Shuseikan, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Satsuma men such as Saigo Takamori went on to lead the Meiji Restoration.
Visitors stroll the Shimazu garden of Sengan-en, climb Shiroyama hill for the classic view of the volcano and take the short ferry ride to walk across lava fields on Sakurajima. The covered arcades of Tenmonkan, the lively downtown, are the place to try local shochu, black pork and shirokuma shaved ice.
Sakurajima is the volcano that rises across Kinko Bay from Kagoshima and is one of the most active in Japan, often sending up plumes of ash. Once an island, it was joined to the Osumi Peninsula by lava from the great eruption of 1914, and it grows giant daikon radishes and tiny komikan oranges.
The Sakurajima Ferry links central Kagoshima with Sakurajima across Kinko Bay, a crossing of about 3.5 kilometres that takes roughly 15 minutes. Running since 1934, it is the easiest way to reach the volcano, and its open decks give close views of the smoking peak as the boat approaches.
The Yunohira Observatory sits on Yunohira, a lava dome on the western slopes of Sakurajima near Kagoshima, about 373 metres above the sea. It gives a close view of the rugged summit peaks of the volcano and looks back across Kinko Bay to the city, and a scenic mountain road climbs up to it.
The Arimura Lava Observatory is a lookout on the south-east coast of Sakurajima, reached from Kagoshima by ferry and road. Walkways cross fields of black lava from past eruptions that buried the old village of Arimura in 1914, with views of the smoking Minamidake crater and the sea.
Sengan-en is a Japanese garden in Kagoshima that the Shimazu lords began as a villa in 1658, using Sakurajima and Kinko Bay as borrowed scenery. Its ponds and stone lanterns surround the old residence, and the ruins of a reverberatory furnace in the grounds are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Shoko Shuseikan is a museum beside Sengan-en in Kagoshima, housed in the stone machine factory of the Shuseikan, the industrial complex that lord Shimazu Nariakira began in the 1850s. It tells the story of early Satsuma industry and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site listed in 2015.
Kagoshima Castle, also called Tsurumaru Castle, was the seat of the Shimazu lords in Kagoshima from the early 17th century. Its stone walls and moat survive at the foot of Shiroyama hill, along with a rebuilt main gate, and the Reimeikan history museum now stands within the old grounds.
Terukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine in central Kagoshima at the foot of Shiroyama, dedicated to Shimazu Nariakira, lord of Satsuma. Bronze statues of Nariakira, his brother Hisamitsu and nephew Tadayoshi stand in the grounds, and its summer Rokugatsudo lantern festival is the largest in Kagoshima.
The Shiroyama Observatory crowns Shiroyama, a forested hill about 107 metres high in the heart of Kagoshima, and gives the classic view of the city with Sakurajima behind. The hill was the scene of the last battle of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877, where Saigo Takamori made his final stand.
Tenmonkan is the main downtown district of Kagoshima, often called the biggest nightlife quarter in southern Kyushu, with a network of covered shopping arcades. It takes its name from an observatory built by the Shimazu lords, and its Mujaki cafe is the birthplace of the shirokuma shaved ice.
The Kagoshima City Aquarium, known as Io World, stands on the waterfront of Kagoshima with a view of Sakurajima and opened in 1997. Its great Kuroshio tank holds 1,500 tonnes of water and a whale shark, and its name comes from io, the word for fish in the local Kagoshima dialect.
The Museum of the Meiji Restoration in Kagoshima stands beside the Kotsuki River in Kajiya-cho, the area where Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi grew up. Life-size robots of Satsuma heroes act out scenes from the 1860s, telling how the young samurai of this city helped shape modern Japan.
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