Kagoshima was the center of the territory of the Shimazu clan of samurai for many centuries. It was a busy political and commercial port city throughout the medieval period and into the Edo period (1603�1867) when it formally became the capital of the Shimazu's fief, the Satsuma Domain. The official emblem is designed Shimazu's kamon to shape of the character (shi, means "city"). Satsuma remained 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. It served not only as the political center for Satsuma, but also for the semi-independent vassal kingdom of Ry?ky?; Ryukyuan 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.
Kagoshima was bombarded by the British Royal Navy in 1863 to punish the daimy? of Satsuma for the murder of Charles Lennox Richardson on the T?kaid? highway the previous year and its refusal to pay an indemnity in compensation. (See 'Bombardment of Kagoshima').
Kagoshima was the birthplace and scene of the last stand of Saig? Takamori, a legendary figure in Meiji Japan in 1877 at the end of the Satsuma Rebellion.
Japan's industrial revolution is said to have started here, stimulated by the young students' train station. Seventeen young men of Satsuma broke the Tokugawa ban on foreign travel, traveling first to England and then the United States before returning to share the benefits of the best of Western science and technology. A statue was erected outside of the train station as a tribute to them. The city was officially founded on 1 April 1889.
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