t Fukuoka’s neon-lit buildings reflected in the mirror-like Naka River at nighttime
t Fukuoka’s neon-lit buildings reflected in the mirror-like Naka River at nighttime
Experience Kyushu
Organized communities settled in Kyushu in the Jomon period (14,500–300 BC). According to legend, it was from Kyushu that the first emperor of Japan, Jimmu, set out in the 6th century BC on his campaign to unify the country. And it was through Kyushu in the 4th century AD that Chinese and Korean culture, including Buddhism and the Chinese writing system, first infiltrated Japan. Not all foreign incursions were welcomed, however. The natives of the island repelled several Mongolian invasions, the last and most formidable in 1274 only by the intervention of a powerful storm, the kamikaze (divine wind), which scuttled the Mongolian fleet.
In the 16th century, Christianity, firearms, and medicine were introduced through the port cities of Nagasaki and Kumamoto by the merchants and emissaries of Portugal, Spain, and Holland. Later, during the two centuries of Japan’s self-imposed isolation, the tiny island of Dejima off the coast of Nagasaki was the country’s sole entrepôt for Western trade and learning. The city grew because of this contact with the rest of the world but, four centuries later, Nagasaki was devastated by an atomic bomb detonated by the US in 1945.
Today, the island is characterized by volcanic activity. Kagoshima lies in the shadow of Sakurajima, which daily belches ash; Mount Aso is one of the world’s largest calderas; and steaming fissures and fumeroles are found at Beppu, Unzen, and other spa towns.