Satsuma kaido

• Other Names: 出水筋 (Demizu suji)
• Japanese: 薩摩街道 (Satsuma kaidou)

The Satsuma kaidô, or Satsuma Highway, was a road, roughly 100 km in length, which ran through Satsuma province to the border with Higo province. It was a major commercial thoroughfare, and was used for a variety of purposes, including as one of the main routes used by the Shimazu clan as the first (and last) leg of their sankin kôtai missions to Edo.

The road began at Shimomachi fudatsuji in Kagoshima (today the site of the parking lot of the eastern branch building of Kagoshima City Hall (shiyakusho)), and ran past the 1000 koku riding grounds (Sengoku baba), through Nishida-bashi, the port of Ichiki, Mukôda, Akune, and Demizu, before arriving at Noma-seki at the border with Higo province. Stone markers were arranged every ri (roughly four km) along the route, and much of the route was lined with pine trees, which provided shelter from sun and rain.

References

• Plaque at Kagoshima Central Park.[1]