Kagoshima Local Quiz Practice: Questions and Explanations

Correct answerSakurajima

Sakurajima is the active volcano rising in Kinko Bay directly across from downtown Kagoshima. It still trails smoke, and residents live in company with its ashfall. City-run ferries shuttle between the urban waterfront and the volcano's port — less a sight to visit than a part of daily life.

Source:初めてご乗船の方へ｜桜島フェリー桜島の成り立ち｜鹿児島市

Correct answerThe Shimazu family

Sengan-en is the daimyo garden built as a villa of the Shimazu, lords of Satsuma, and a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty. Commanding Kinko Bay and Sakurajima, it served the clan as a kind of guesthouse — and in the Bakumatsu era, modernization itself began next door.

Source:営業案内 - 国指定名勝 仙巌園歴史 - 国指定名勝 仙巌園

Correct answerSaigo Takamori

Saigo Takamori, samurai and statesman of Satsuma, was a chief architect of the Meiji Restoration. Leaving the new government, he returned home and in 1877 raised the Satsuma Rebellion, the largest civil war of the Meiji era. Sites connected to it remain scattered across Kagoshima today.

Source:城山（城山展望台・城山自然遊歩道）｜かごしま市観光ナビ

Correct answerSatsuma-age (fried fish cake)

Satsuma-age — called tsukeage at home — is fried fish paste, by one account descended from Okinawan chikiagi, which may also explain the name. Seasoned on the sweet side with sugar, it is eaten as is or lightly grilled, a fixture of Kagoshima tables at feast and on weekdays.

Source:つけあげ 鹿児島県｜うちの郷土料理

Correct answerShochu

Kagoshima is the heartland of imo-jochu, sweet-potato shochu, with distilleries scattered across the prefecture. Sweet potatoes and a warm climate shaped a spirit culture all its own, traditionally savored mixed with hot water — a drink that keeps company with everyday life here.

Source:サツマイモと焼酎｜鹿児島県酒造組合

Correct answerShirokuma ("white bear")

Shirokuma is Kagoshima's own shaved ice: a snowy mound dressed with house-made milk syrup and studded with colorful fruit. It is said to have been devised at Mujaki in the Tenmonkan quarter, and remains a summer ritual and a fixture of any visit.

Source:天文館むじゃきのこだわり｜白熊の由来と歴史

Correct answerWhale shark

At Io World Kagoshima City Aquarium, a whale shark — the largest fish on Earth — cruises the Kuroshio Tank. The aquarium is known for raising young sharks only to a certain size before returning them to the sea, living side by side with Kinko Bay at its doorstep.

Source:黒潮大水槽｜いおワールドかごしま水族館

Correct answerTenmonkan

Tenmonkan is the largest entertainment and shopping quarter in southern Kyushu, its arcades lined with restaurants and shops and rarely short of a crowd. Home to the birthplace of shirokuma shaved ice among much else, it is the busy public face of Kagoshima, day and night.

Source:天文館｜かごしま市観光ナビ

Correct answerSakurajima daikon (giant radish)

The Sakurajima daikon, grown in the volcano's ash-fed soil, is a Kagoshima heirloom vegetable. In 2003 a 31.1-kilogram specimen entered the Guinness records as the world's heaviest radish (the record has since passed to another variety). Fine-grained and slow to crumble, it suits simmered dishes and pickles.

Source:かごしまの伝統野菜「桜島だいこん」を紹介します｜鹿児島県かごしまの伝統野菜　桜島だいこん

Correct answerFalse

Sakurajima really was an island once. A major eruption in the Taisho era poured lava into the Seto strait and filled it, fusing the volcano to the Osumi Peninsula -- which is why you can now drive there as well. An eruption that literally redrew the map of Kagoshima.

Source:大正噴火による被害等｜鹿児島市

Correct answerOkubo Toshimichi

Okubo Toshimichi grew up in the same castle-town neighborhood as Saigo Takamori and went on to steer the young Meiji state. In 1878, the year after Saigo fell in the rebellion, Okubo was assassinated in Tokyo. Two boys from one street divided the Restoration's light and shadow.

Source:西郷隆盛・従道誕生地紀尾井坂の変

Correct answerBoard through the middle door and pay the fare when you get off

Kagoshima's streetcars run on a "board at the middle, pay on exit" system: riders enter through the tram's center door and pay when they step off. With the Rapica IC card it's just a tap on boarding and alighting; paying cash means dropping the exact fare into the farebox. More than a century on, this is still how the city's everyday ride works.

Source:電車・バスのご利用方法｜鹿児島市交通局

Correct answerThe first department store west of Kobe

Yamakataya traces its roots to a kimono shop founded in 1751 and later grew into a modern department store -- said to be the first one west of Kobe, a pioneer among Japan's regional department stores.

Source:山形屋 - Wikipedia山形屋｜かごしま市観光ナビ

Correct answerThe Aira caldera

A colossal eruption about 29,000 years ago carved the vast Aira Caldera at the head of Kinko Bay; Sakurajima was born on its southern rim some 26,000 years ago. The inner bay itself is understood to be the flooded floor of that ancient caldera.

Source:桜島の成り立ち｜鹿児島市

Correct answerSmall fish

The kibinago, a small herring-family fish, takes its name from southern Kagoshima dialect: kibi for the sash-like blue band along its silver flank, nago for small fish. Opened by hand and arrayed like chrysanthemum petals, its sashimi — the kikka-zukuri — is a local classic.

Source:キビナゴ｜鹿児島県｜全国のプライドフィッシュ

Correct answerShirasu plateau

The shirasu plateaus — deep beds of volcanic ash peculiar to Kagoshima — drain too freely for rice paddies. But they suit the drought-hardy sweet potato well, and on that footing grew the region's deep culture of sweet-potato farming and imo-jochu distilling.

Source:サツマイモと焼酎｜鹿児島県酒造組合

Correct answerThe Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa)

Kagoshima kurobuta traces back some four hundred years to pigs Shimazu Iehisa brought from Ryukyu. Meiji-era crossbreeding with pigs imported from England refined the breed, and today the brand requires a finishing diet that includes sweet potato — the source, it is said, of the meat's gentle sweetness.

Source:かごしま黒豚とは｜鹿児島県黒豚生産者協議会

Correct answerA polar bear's face

The name shirokuma — polar bear — is said to come from the view from above: raisins, cherries and candied angelica arranged on the milky ice suggest a bear's face. Some seventy years on, every bowl still gets its features drawn in fruit.

Source:天文館むじゃきのこだわり｜白熊の由来と歴史白熊について - 天文館むじゃき

Correct answerThey are released back to the sea

Under the "Kagoshima method," Io World raises young whale sharks caught in local set nets to a certain size, then releases them back to the sea -- a philosophy of cycling generations between tank and ocean rather than keeping a giant fish for life.

Source:黒潮大水槽｜いおワールドかごしま水族館

Correct answerAmuran

Amuran is the Ferris wheel crowning the Amu Plaza mall above Kagoshima-Chuo Station, with gondola views across the city to Sakurajima. Reportedly only the fifth rooftop wheel in Japan, it has become the station's landmark.

Source:観覧車「アミュラン」のご案内｜JR鹿児島シティ

Correct answerDaiyame

"Daiyame" is Kagoshima dialect for an evening drink, said to come from "easing" (yameru) away the day's "weariness" (dare). "Ogojo" means a young woman, "nise" a young man, and "oidon" means "we/us" -- each a different piece of Kagoshima dialect.

Source:薩隅方言 - Wikipedia

Correct answerIt has been planted with grass ("greening")

Kagoshima has turfed the trackbed of its tram lines, laying ribbons of lawn between the rails to ease the heat-island effect, soften noise and dress up the streetscape. Streetcars gliding along green corridors have become one of the city's signature scenes.

Source:市電軌道敷緑化｜鹿児島市交通局

Correct answerGreenery (plantings)

Maruya Gardens opened in 2010 after a renovation of the building that had housed the closed Mitsukoshi Kagoshima store. Its exterior walls and rooftop are covered in greenery, and it includes a rooftop garden called "Sora Niwa," with community spaces called "gardens" on each floor, all under its self-described concept of a "unitment store."

Source:マルヤガーデンズ - Wikipedia

Correct answerAn astronomical observatory

"Tenmonkan" -- literally 'the astronomy hall' -- takes its name from an observatory that lord Shimazu Shigehide built in 1779 for calendar studies. The name of a scholarly institution ended up denoting southern Kyushu's liveliest quarter.

Source:天文館｜かごしま市観光ナビ

Correct answerAbout 15 minutes

The Sakurajima Ferry, run by the city's shipping bureau, crosses between Kagoshima and Sakurajima ports in about fifteen minutes — twenty in rough weather — every day of the year. Commuters, tourists and freight all ride it: the working artery between the city and its volcano.

Source:初めてご乗船の方へ｜桜島フェリー

Correct answerSakurajima and Kinko Bay

Sengan-en is a borrowed-scenery garden on the grandest scale, treating Sakurajima as its artificial hill and Kinko Bay as its pond, as the saying goes. Built in 1658 as a villa by Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the 19th head of the clan, its genius is to annex the landscape itself.

Source:仙巌園と集成館｜かごしま市観光ナビ歴史 - 国指定名勝 仙巌園

Correct answerShimazu Yoshihiro

The Cat Shrine honors a tale of Shimazu Yoshihiro, who took seven cats on the Korean campaign and read the hour from the dilation of their pupils. The two cats that came home alive are enshrined here — the story of feline clocks kept quietly in a corner of Sengan-en.

Source:ご由緒｜猫神社｜仙巌園仙巌園特集 - 鹿児島市観光サイト

Correct answerWelded tuff (a volcanic stone)

The former Shuseikan machine works, completed in 1865, is held to be Japan's first full-scale Western-style stone building — built not of brick but of locally quarried welded tuff, the stone of Bakumatsu Satsuma. It now houses the Shoko Shuseikan museum of Shimazu history.

Source:明治日本の産業革命 - 尚古集成館

Correct answerThe Tenpyo-hoji eruption → The Bunmei eruption → The An'ei eruption → The Taisho eruption

The order runs Tenpyo-hoji (764), Bunmei (1471–76), An'ei (1779–82), then Taisho (1914) — the four great recorded eruptions of Sakurajima. The last of them sent lava across the strait, joining the volcano to the Osumi Peninsula for good.

Source:桜島 有史以降の火山活動大正噴火 - 鹿児島市

Correct answerOld Shuseikan / Terayama Charcoal Kiln Ruins / Sekiyoshi Sluice

Kagoshima's components of the 'Meiji Industrial Revolution' World Heritage number three: the former Shuseikan in the Iso district, the Sekiyoshi sluice that channeled water to power its machinery, and the Terayama kilns that fired its charcoal. Factory, water and energy — the whole enterprise in outline.

Source:鹿児島エリアの構成資産｜鹿児島市

Correct answerSakurajima/Vesuvius, and Kinko Bay/Bay of Naples

A smoking volcano above an arc of blue bay: the pairing of Sakurajima and Kinko Bay invited comparison with Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, earning Kagoshima the name 'Naples of the Orient.' Few capitals anywhere look across the water at a live volcano — this view is where Kagoshima begins.

Source:仙巌園と集成館｜かごしま市観光ナビ

Correct answer1,117 m

Kitadake (Ontake), Sakurajima's highest peak, rises 1,117 meters. Its summit eruptions ended long ago; today's activity belongs to Minamidake to the south, measured at 1,060 meters. Because the mountain climbs straight from the sea, it looms over the city with a presence beyond its numbers.

Source:桜島[さくらじま]Sakurajima【常時観測火山】

Correct answerWoman

Ogojo is Kagoshima dialect for a young woman; 'Satsuma ogojo,' a phrase the dictionaries record, denotes the women of Kagoshima. The word lives on in the name of the rousing Ogojo Daiko drum performance at the Ohara Festival.

Source:【2026年最新版】おはら祭｜かごしま市観光ナビ御御じょ（おごじょ）

Correct answerThe Namamugi Incident

In 1862, Satsuma retainers cut down a British subject who crossed their procession at Namamugi. The following year seven Royal Navy warships entered Kagoshima Bay demanding redress, and the Anglo-Satsuma War broke out — the collision that brought Satsuma face to face with the world.

Source:鹿児島県／薩英戦争

Correct answerShimazu Nariakira

Terukuni Shrine enshrines Shimazu Nariakira, the eleventh lord of Satsuma, whose Shuseikan project led Japan's early modernization. After his death the imperial court granted him the divine title Terukuni Daimyojin in 1863, and the shrine was founded — still gathering the devotion his memory inspires.

Source:御由緒｜照國神社

Correct answerOhara Matsuri

The Ohara Festival fills Tenmonkan's tram street every November 2–3 — southern Kyushu's biggest festival, first held in 1949. Its centerpiece is the mass dance, some twenty thousand dancers moving to the strains of 'Ohara-bushi': the two days when autumn Kagoshima is at its brightest.

Source:おはら祭について知りたい。｜鹿児島市おはら祭 - 鹿児島市観光サイト

Correct answerBokashi (gradation)

Satsuma kiriko is the cut glass born of the Satsuma domain's industrial drive in the Bakumatsu years. Its hallmark is bokashi — the gradation carved from a thick overlay of colored glass, a softness Edo kiriko does not have. The craft died out, then was revived in 1985.

Source:薩摩切子とは。幕末に生まれた「幻の切子」のあゆみ｜中川政七商店の読みもの

Correct answerKokuhai-bukuro

To collect Sakurajima's ashfall, Kagoshima City distributes special kokuhai bags — the name declares the will to prevail over the ash. Residents bag the ash that settles on their lots and set it out at designated points for collection: everyday ingenuity in a city that lives with a volcano.

Source:克灰袋の提供｜鹿児島市

Correct answerThe '8.6' flood disaster

In the torrential '8.6 flood' of August 6, 1993, the Kotsuki River burst its banks and two of the five Edo-period stone bridges were swept away. The surviving three, including Nishida Bridge, were moved to Stone Bridge Memorial Park — still walkable, keeping both memory and masonry alive.

Source:石橋記念公園・石橋記念館｜かごしま市観光ナビ

Correct answerEnkyō ('monkey's cry')

The piercing cry raised in Jigen-ryu training is called enkyo — 'the monkey's shriek.' The famous 'Chesuto!' of samurai dramas spread through fiction and is said to differ from what is actually shouted in practice. The relentless drill of striking a standing trunk completes the picture of Satsuma swordsmanship.

Source:薩摩の示現流と「猿叫」 - ジモコロ