Sengan-en
鹿児島市吉野町9700-1
A Shimazu family villa built in 1658 by Mitsuhisa, the 19th head of the clan. It is known for its grand garden design, which uses Sakurajima as a borrowed backdrop and Kinko Bay as its pond. In the closing years of the Edo period, the 28th lord, Shimazu Nariakira, built a reverberatory furnace and a cluster of other factories just behind the estate — the Shuseikan enterprise, a pioneering step toward Japan's industrial modernization. The furnace ruins are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution," and the adjacent Shoko Shuseikan museum covers the history in depth.
Historical Stories
Before the Black Ships Arrived, Nariakira Was Already Moving
Read moreCharacters
Shimazu Nariakira
ViewJourneys
