kagoshima university
As mentioned earlier, Kagoshima area has a lot of myths as the place where
Japanese gods (They are enshrined by Japanese Shinto shrines) descended to the
peak of the Kirishima Mountain. The remains of people's livelihood as old as
13,000 years ago have also been found in many places in the area, due to its
mild climate. Many foreign civilizations have been introduced through Kagoshima,
southern front gate of Japan in its long history. Kagoshima used to be an area
with exotic atmospheres, indicated by the name of places such as Soo, Ei and
Tokara, those of which must be foreign origins. One of the examples of foreign
civilizations can be Buddhism from China. The famous monk (Ganjin (668~763) who
provided a great influence on Japanese Buddhism) landed at the southwest coast
of Kagoshima where were favored with natural ports. Both Christianity (by
Francisco de Xavier (1506~1552: Portuguese) and western gun have firstly brought
to Japan in 16th century through Kagoshima. Due to the reason that the land of
Kagoshima is mainly composed of volcanic ashes, and is not appropriate area for
the rice production that was the base of Japanese economy, loads of Feudalism,
Satsuma clan, had to find other source of income for their development. Major
economic activities instead of rice production was foreign trade by smuggling
under the circumstance that central feudal government (Tokugawa Shogunate:
1603~18674) prohibited (locked countries policy) to communicate with foreign
countries except limited foreign trade through Nagasaki. Such informal
communication with foreign countries was the base for Satsuma's modernization
including introduction of modern military system and equipment in the end period
of Tokugawa Shogunate. Such special situation of Satsuma clan compared with
other clans in Japan made them together with Choushu (Clan corresponding to the
current Yamaguchi Prefecture) lead the Meiji Restoration to change from being a
feudal society to having a capitalist economy and left the Japanese with a
lingering Western influence. As shown above, Kagoshima, Satsuma area is
characterized as an area where have been actively communicated with foreign
countries in Japan.
