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.