The Naples of the East — Japan's southernmost major city lives under a perpetual dusting of volcanic ash from Sakurajima across the bay, the samurai who opened Japan to the West came from here, and the black Berkshire pigs (kurobuta) and sweet potato shochu are the proudest exports of Satsuma's subtropical southernmost domain
Kagoshima sits at the southern tip of Kyushu under the permanent shadow of Sakurajima — one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupting hundreds of times per year and dusting the city in grey ash so regularly that residents keep umbrellas for ash-fall the way other cities keep them for rain. Sakurajima (originally an island, connected to the Osumi Peninsula by a 1914 lava flow) is visible from everywhere in Kagoshima, looming over the bay with a gentle cone that is undeniably beautiful even when smoking. The city's parallel claim to fame is its history as the capital of Satsuma Domain — th…
The Satsuma Domain's history is inseparable from Japanese history's defining transition. The Shimazu clan ruled southern Kyushu continuously for 700 years (1185–1871) — an unusually long unbroken feudal lineage that gave Satsuma a strong independent identity. The Anglo-Satsuma War (August 1863) began when Satsuma samurai killed an English merchant (Charles Richardson) who refused to dismount from his horse as the daimyo's procession passed; the British Navy shelled Kagoshima in retaliation. Remarkably, within two years, Satsuma had purchased British warships, hired British naval instructors,…