Kagoshima

The Shimazu family took control of Satsuma province in the late 12th century and held it until the feudal system was abolished almost seven hundred years later, one of the longest continuous lordships in Japan. Their harbour at the mouth of the Kōtsuki river looked south towards the Ryukyu Islands and China, and traded in both directions. Francis Xavier landed here in 1549 and preached for about a year, the first Christian mission in Japan. In the first years of the 17th century Shimazu Tadatsune built Tsurumaru Castle below the hill of Shiroyama, a deliberately modest castle without a keep for so powerful a house, and in 1609 Satsuma forces invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom, which paid tribute to Kagoshima thereafter while keeping its relations with China.

Outward-looking lords made the city an early centre of Western technology. Shimazu Nariakira built the Shūseikan works in the 1850s to make iron, glass, ceramics and cannon. After the killing of an English merchant on the highway, British warships bombarded Kagoshima in 1863 and burned much of it; the humiliation persuaded Satsuma to buy Western ships and machines and to send students secretly to London. Satsuma and Chōshū then led the overthrow of the shogunate in 1868. Saigō Takamori, the most famous of the Satsuma leaders, later turned against the new government, and his rebellion ended in 1877 on Shiroyama, where he died a short walk above the city centre.

The 20th century brought two catastrophes. Sakurajima's eruption of January 1914 buried villages, killed dozens of people and joined the island to the Ōsumi Peninsula with lava. An American air raid in June 1945 destroyed about forty-four per cent of the built-up area. The city was rebuilt on a wide, low plan, the Shinkansen arrived in stages between 2004 and 2011, and Kagoshima now trades on its volcano, its shochu and its part in the Meiji Restoration.

Satsuma identity is strong and slightly separate. The dialect was hard enough for outsiders to follow that it is said to have served as a code; people still switch into it among themselves and translate for visitors. Old Satsuma values — plain speaking, endurance, loyalty and a certain gruffness — are attached to Saigō Takamori, whose statue stands below Shiroyama and whose image appears on shochu labels and sweet wrappers across the city. Traditional male-centred drinking customs remain visible in the older bars, although they are fading.

The crafts are courtly in origin. Satsuma ware, first made by Korean potters brought back after the invasions of the 1590s, ranges from plain dark everyday pieces to cream-coloured ware painted in gold that was exported to Europe. Satsuma Kiriko is heavy cut glass in coloured overlays, first made at the Shūseikan works and revived in modern times. Ōshima tsumugi, a fine silk from the Amami islands, is woven and sold here.

Festivals are large and informal. The Ohara dance in November moves through the central streets in long lines of yukata; Terukuni Shrine's summer festival fills its avenue with lanterns and stalls; and fireworks are fired over the bay in August. Sport follows football and sumo, and a strong martial-arts tradition survives in the local style of swordsmanship. The volcano is treated with familiarity rather than fear: people check the ash forecast much as others check the weather.

About 590,000 people live in the city, well over a third of the prefecture's population, and the number is slowly falling as younger people move to Fukuoka or the larger cities. Most live in the flat strip between the hills and the bay, or in newer suburbs up the valleys, and the tram lines and the shore road carry the daily traffic. Sakurajima's roughly four thousand residents belong to the same city, separated from it by some thirteen minutes of water.

The economy rests on food and drink production, agriculture and services. The prefecture is Japan's largest producer of both pork and beef, as well as of sweet potatoes and eels, and shochu distilleries range from large brands to small village works. The port handles island freight and passengers, the space centre on Tanegashima brings engineering work to the region, and tourism provides much of the rest. Incomes are below the national average and the ageing of rural districts is pronounced.

Ash sets a routine of its own. When the wind blows westward, cars, balconies and school grounds are covered with grit, sweeping follows, and the municipal bags of collected ash are put out for collection. Eruption alerts, ash forecasts and evacuation routes are ordinary parts of local news. Evenings begin early in Tenmonkan and end earlier than in larger cities, and weekends are spent on the beaches of the peninsulas or in the hot springs that reach almost every district.

Kurobuta, the black Berkshire pork raised across the prefecture, is the city's signature. It is served as tonkatsu with shredded cabbage, as shabu-shabu with a citrus dip, in a bowl of ramen, or as the local tonkotsu — belly and ribs simmered for hours in miso, brown sugar and shochu until they fall apart, a dish said to descend from the field cooking of Satsuma soldiers. Chicken is eaten raw as sashimi here more than elsewhere in Japan, a practice that depends on very local supply chains.

From the sea come kibinago, tiny silver-striped herrings fanned out on a plate with vinegared miso; satsuma-age, fish paste fried into cakes that are sometimes flavoured with shochu; and tuna and mackerel landed at the city market. Keihan, chicken and condiments over rice with hot broth poured on top, comes from the Amami islands to the south and is widely served in the city. Sweet potato, introduced to Japan through these islands, appears in everything from tempura to distilling mash.

The drink is imo-jōchū, shochu distilled from sweet potato, with hundreds of labels from the prefecture's distilleries; it is usually drunk with hot water, mixed ahead of time in a flask so that it settles. Sweets are unfussy: karukan, a white steamed sponge of grated mountain yam and rice flour; jangara and other sugar snacks; and shirokuma, the mound of shaved ice with condensed milk, fruit and sweet beans that was invented in Tenmonkan and is sold everywhere in summer.