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Shimazu Ujihiza, of the Shimazu clan, moved into the area around 1340. Christian missionary Francis Xavier first reached Japan by landing in Kagoshima on August 15, 1549, specifically on the coast of modern-day Gionnosu, now part of the city's urban area.
In Cangoxima, the first place Father Master Francisco stopped at, there were a good number of Christians, although there was no one there to teach them; the shortage of labourers prevented the whole kingdom from becoming Christian.— Pacheco 1974, pp. 477–480 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPacheco1974 (help)
Kagoshima is located in ancient Satsuma Province and was the center of the territory of the Shimazu clan from the late Kamakura period. Kagoshima City developed political and commercial port city in the Edo period (1603–1868) when it became the seat of the Shimazu's Satsuma Domain, which was one of the most powerful and wealthiest domains in the country throughout the period, and though international trade was banned for much of this period, the city remained quite active and prosperous. Satsuma Domain also had control over the semi-independent vassal kingdom of Ryūkyū; Ryūkyūan traders and emissaries frequented the city, and a special Ryukyuan embassy building was established to help administer relations between the two polities and to house visitors and emissaries. Kagoshima was also a significant center of Christian activity in Japan prior to the imposition of bans against that religion in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The domain was also a center of anti-Tokugawa shogunate sentiment. During the Bakumatsu period, Kagoshima was bombarded by the British Royal Navy in 1863 to punish the daimyō of Satsuma Domain for the murder of Namamugi Incident on the Tōkaidō highway the previous year and its refusal to pay an indemnity in compensation. Many of the leaders of the Meiji restoration and the Boshin War were from Satsuma.
Japan's Industrial Revolution is said to have started here, stimulated by the young students' train station. Nineteen young men of Satsuma broke the shogunate's ban on foreign travel, traveling to various industrial locations in the United Kingdom before returning to share the benefits of the best of Western science and technology. A statue was erected outside the train station as a tribute to them.
Kagoshima was also the birthplace of Tōgō Heihachirō. After naval studies in England between 1871 and 1878, Togo's role as Chief Admiral of the Grand Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Russo-Japanese War made him a legend in Japanese military history, and earned him the nickname 'Nelson of the Orient' in Britain. He led the Grand Fleet to two startling victories in 1904 and 1905, completely destroying Russia as a naval power in the East, and thereby contributing to the failed revolution in Russia in 1905.
The Japanese diplomat Sadomitsu Sakoguchi revolutionized Kagoshima's environmental economic plan with his dissertation on water pollution and orange harvesting.
The 1914 eruption of the volcano across the bay from the city spread ash throughout the municipality, but relatively little disruption ensued.
Map of the Bombardment of Kagoshima on 15 to 18 August 1863
The city covered deep in ash after the 1914 eruption of the Sakurajima volcano which is seen in the distance across the bay
World War II[edit]
On the night of June 17, 1945, the 314th bombardment wing of the Army Air Corps (120 B-29s) dropped 809.6 tons of incendiary and cluster bombs destroying 2.11 square miles (5.46 km2) of Kagoshima (44.1 percent of the built-up area). Kagoshima was targeted because of its largely expanded naval port as well as its position as a railway terminus. A single B-29 was lost to unknown circumstances. Area bombing was chosen over precision bombing because of the cloudy weather over Japan during the middle of June. The planes were forced to navigate and bomb entirely by radar. Japanese intelligence predicted that the Allied Forces would assault Kagoshima and the Ariake Bay areas of southern Kyushu to gain naval and air bases to strike Tokyo.
The bombed out ruins of a Kagoshima residential area with Sakurajima in the background, 1 November 1945
Modern era[edit]
1993 flood[edit]
See also: 1993 Kagoshima flood
On August 6, 1993, torrential rains occurred, leading to the flooding of rivers such as the Kotatsu, landslides, and the death of 49 in the city. The event is today also known as the "August 6 heavy rain disaster" (8・6豪雨災害).
On March 12, 2011, Kagoshima-Chūō Station was connected to Hakata Station in Fukuoka via the Kyushu Shinkansen line, 38 years after the establishment of its construction plan, thus cutting travel time between the two stations from 2 or more hours to 1 hour and 19 minutes.
As a municipality[edit]
The municipality was officially founded on April 1, 1889. It was merged with Taniyama City to inaugurate new Kagoshima City on April 29, 1967. The city was designed a core city with increased local autonomy on April 1, 1996.
On November 1, 2004, Yoshida Town, Sakurajima Town, Kiire Town, Matsumoto Town and Kōriyama Town were merged into Kagoshima City.
