Japan Heritage story
Satsuma samurai towns: walking the fumoto quarters
薩摩の武士が生きた町
Satsuma's samurai were famous for their courage, and Kagoshima is the only place in Japan where so many of their towns survive. About 120 samurai quarters, called fumoto, were set up around mountain castles, built like forts with stone walls and tall hedges.
Key facts
- Theme
- Castles, Sea and waterside, Food and sake
- Era
- Edo
- Region
- Kyushu & Okinawa
- Official name in Japanese
- 薩摩の武士が生きた町
- Official subtitle in Japanese
- ～武家屋敷群「麓」を歩く～
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 鹿児島県（鹿児島市，出水市，垂水市，薩摩川内市，いちき串木野市，南さつま市，志布志市，南九州市，姶良市）
The story
After defeat by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Shimazu clan lost land but kept its samurai, who made up about a quarter of the population. There was no room for them all in Kagoshima's castle town, so the domain placed them in fumoto, samurai quarters beside mountain castles across the land, about 120 of them by the end of the Edo period. Satsuma even kept its mountain castles, telling the shogunate that pulling them down would wash soil onto the fields.
Each fumoto was built for defence: main streets called baba lined with river-stone walls and tall hedges, and more hedges between gate and front door so no one could walk straight in. Children were raised in goju groups, where older boys taught younger ones sumo and Jigen-ryu swordsmanship. Samurai also farmed and built canals and stone bridges, and they became the strength behind Satsuma's role in the Meiji Restoration.
What to see
- Izumi Fumoto: the border quarter that once held nearly 3,000 samurai, with stone walls, hedges and samurai gates.Google Maps 出水麓武家屋敷群 (opens in a new tab)
- Iriki Fumoto: a compact quarter where a medieval castle site and samurai houses sit together.Google Maps 入来麓武家屋敷群 (opens in a new tab)
- Chiran samurai gardens: the samurai house gardens of Chiran in Minamikyushu.Google Maps 知覧武家屋敷庭園 (opens in a new tab)
- Kagoshima Castle site: the domain's main castle in Kagoshima City.Google Maps 鹿児島城跡 (opens in a new tab)
Plan your trip with the Kagoshima prefecture guide and see more castles.
Good to know
- At a samurai house, notice how the hedge stops you seeing or walking straight to the door.
- Try what the samurai ate after a hard day: tonkotsu pork stew and tsukeage fish cakes with shochu.
- Look for gardens that use the nearby mountain castle as their backdrop.
Questions travellers ask
What is a fumoto?
A samurai quarter built beside a mountain castle in the Satsuma domain, laid out like a fort. There were about 120 of them.
Why did Satsuma have so many samurai towns?
Samurai were about a quarter of the population, too many to house in the castle town, so they were spread across the domain.
Where it comes from
Local foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.