Cool Historical Sites in Kyushu
(right in your own backyard!)
Jomon - Kagoshima Prefecture, Kirishima City:
Uenohara Jomon no Mori
(9,500 year old Jomon settlement showcase)
Yayoi - Saga Prefecture, Kanzaki: Yoshinogari Iseki
(Large and complex Yayoi excavation site and settlement + Yayoi National Park)
Kofun - Miyazaki Prefecture, Saito:
Saitobaru Burial Mounds
(more than 300 Kofun style burial mounds, one of the largest groups in Japan)
- Miyazaki Prefecture: Heiwadai Park, Haniwa Garden
(There are over 400 replica Haniwa [Kofun burial statues] of animals, warriors, dancers, etc.)
Asuka Period - Kumamoto Prefecture, Yamaga City, Kikuka Town:
Ruins of Kikuchi Castle (capital of Kyushu in the Yamato Period)
The Warring States Period - Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto City:
Kumamoto Castle (Beseiged during Satsuma Rebellion, 1 of 3 best castles in Japan)
Azuchi/Momoyama Period - Nagasaki Prefecture, Nishizaka Hill:
Twenty-six Martyrs Museum & Monument
(commemorates the canonized Christians executed on the site in 1597)
Edo Period - Kumamoto Prefecture, Amakusa: Oe Catholic Church
(Amakusa was part of the Shimabara Christian rebellion in 1637.
Church site depicts the history of Christianity in Amakusa)
- Nagasaki Prefecture: Dejima
(This little artificial island housed the Dutch and Portuguese during isolation)
- Saga Prefecture, Ureshino City: Hizen Yume Kaido
(Towns, streets, lifestyle, historical figures of Edo life fully recreated here in this park.)
- Kagoshima Prefecture, Kawanabe-gun: Chiran Samurai Residences
(260 year old samurai houses and dry rock style gardening)
Meiji Period - Kagoshima Prefecture: Shiroyama
(Famous battle site during Satsuma Rebellion, historic relics and monuments)
- Kumamoto Prefecture, Tabaruzaka: Tabaruzaka Battlefield Park
(Last major battle-site of the Seinan Civil War [movie Last Samurai])
Showa Period - Nagasaki Prefecture: Atomic Bomb Museum & Peace Park
- Kagoshima Prefecture: Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
- Kumamoto Prefecture, Minamata City: Minamata Disease Municipal Museum
(site of the biggest of the “Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan”, received world-wide
attention, publicized mercury poisoning. Now monument and memorial.)
- Fukuoka, Dazaifu: Kyushu National Museum
(fourth largest national museum, view cultural assets, relics, and historical properties!!)