My Visit to Satsuma

One of my most interesting visits was paid to Kagoshima, the capital city and headquarters of one of the most famous of Japanese clans, and to other points in Satsuma. Kagoshima was bombarded by the British fleet in September 1863 as a reprisal for an attack ¹ on a party of four English persons by the retainers of the Prince on the highroad near Yokohama. As a result of this bombardment, a just appreciation of Western methods was developed among the Satsuma men, and many evidences of this were already visible at the time of my visit. ¹