Get to Know Kyushu | Culture, History, Landscapes & Food

Kyushu is a region comprising 7 prefectures: Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, and Kagoshima. As a child, perhaps you wondered why it was not called “Nanashu,” or 7 Provinces.

Many readers may already know that the name Kyushu, meaning 9 Provinces, is said to derive from the 9 provinces into which the region was once divided: Chikuzen, Chikugo, Buzen, Bungo, Hizen, Higo, Satsuma, Osumi, and Hyuga.

Look closely at their relative positions and all sorts of fascinating details emerge.

Hizen corresponds to present-day Saga and Nagasaki, while Higo corresponds to present-day Kumamoto. Nagasaki and Kumamoto do not share a land border, but they lie close together across the Ariake Sea and even share features in their dialects. Trace the old provinces on a map and a different picture of Kyushu from today's prefectures begins to emerge.

Is Kyushu large or small? The answer depends on how you look at it.

By area, Kyushu as a whole is about half the size of Hokkaido. Yet Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Saga combined are only about 84% the size of Fukushima Prefecture, which may make the region seem small. Kyushu is also mountainous, so the amount of habitable land is surprisingly limited. Even so, about 12.8 million people—1,280 ten-thousands, or one-tenth of Japan's population—live here. Consider that it has 3 government-designated major cities, while Kagoshima City has around 600,000 residents, making it a sizeable regional city.

Include the islands, however, and the area suddenly becomes immense. Kagoshima Prefecture extends all the way to Yoron Island near Okinawa, stretching roughly 600 kilometers—about the distance from Tokyo to Okayama.

Nagasaki Prefecture, which has more islands than any other prefecture, also has Japan's longest coastline.

Viewed together with its surrounding seas, Kyushu is exceptionally broad. That is precisely why its nature, food, and culture are so diverse.

Kyushu is one of the parts of Japan closest to the rest of Asia. Numerous flights connect Fukuoka and other prefectures with South Korea, China, Taiwan, and beyond.

Kyushu has long enjoyed active exchange with the Asian continent. Hakata, Dazaifu, and Dejima in Nagasaki are among the many places where its international connections can still be felt. The atmosphere of its port towns, streetscapes shaped by foreign cultures, and history preserved throughout the region are all distinctively Kyushu.

That influence also appears in the food culture. Champon, castella, and Nanban culture all reflect Kyushu's history of embracing things introduced from abroad and developing them in its own way.

Kyushu has repeatedly taken center stage throughout Japanese history.

Miyazaki, for example, retains a rich body of myths and traditions associated with the descent of the heavenly grandchild and Emperor Jimmu.
One theory places Yamatai, one of the greatest mysteries of ancient history, in Kyushu. Its location remains disputed, but sites such as Yoshinogari in Saga make Kyushu one of the leading candidates and show how indispensable the region is to any consideration of ancient Japan.

Kyushu's proximity to the continent also made it both a gateway for exchange and Japan's front line of defense. Northern Kyushu, the setting for the Mongol invasions, symbolizes this role.

Myth, ancient history, and momentous events that shook the nation.
A closer look at Japanese history reveals that Kyushu played an even larger role than many people imagine.

Since ancient times, Kyushu has encountered and absorbed cultures from abroad.

Firearms arrived through Tanegashima, while Francis Xavier introduced Christianity in Kagoshima and Oita. Port towns prospered through Nanban trade, and Nagasaki embraced new cultures through overseas exchange. Traces of encounters between Japan and the wider world remain across Kyushu today.

That influence became deeply entwined with faith and everyday life: the emergence of Christian daimyo, Hidden Christians who maintained their faith under prohibition, and the discovery of Christians at Oura Cathedral in Nagasaki. These events hold great significance not only in Japanese history but also in the global history of Christianity.

Kyushu was more than a place where foreign cultures entered Japan. It embraced what came from abroad and sometimes struggled with it. This compelling history is found throughout the region.

From the closing years of the shogunate through the Meiji period, Kyushu was deeply involved in Japan's great transformation.

Nagasaki was a vital gateway where information, technology, and people from overseas gathered. Sakamoto Ryoma's activities there and his establishment of Kameyama Shachu are emblematic of that role.

The Satsuma domain is also essential to any account of modern Japan. Its deepening ties with Britain after the Anglo-Satsuma War and subsequent adoption of Western technology and ideas helped lead to the overthrow of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. The Saga domain was likewise an early adopter of modern technology, investing in reverberatory furnaces, cannon production, and more.

From the Meiji period onward, Kyushu also supported Japan through industry. The Yawata Steel Works, Miike Coal Mine and Miike Port, Nagasaki's shipbuilding facilities, and Kagoshima's Shuseikan industrial complex are just a few examples. Numerous sites that supported modern Japan's development remain across Kyushu, and some are inscribed as components of the World Heritage Site “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.”

Politics, technology, and industry: Kyushu's strength was also at work behind the emergence of modern Japan.

Volcanoes are indispensable to any account of Kyushu's scenery. The region is one of Japan's foremost volcanic areas. Sakurajima's plume, Aso's caldera, and the mountain ranges of Kirishima and Unzen give Kyushu's landscapes a power that goes far beyond mere beauty.

The hot springs created by those volcanoes are another of Kyushu's great pleasures: steam rising over Beppu, morning mist in Yufuin, and the hot-sand baths of Ibusuki. Appealing hot springs are found throughout the region.

Mountains move, hot water rises, and smoke drifts upward. Kyushu's scenery lets you feel that the Earth itself is alive.

The sea is another essential part of Kyushu's scenery. Around the main island, enclosed waters with large tidal ranges, such as Omura Bay and the Ariake Sea, offer views unlike those of other seas. The Ariake Sea's mudskippers are cute—but they are also sold as an unusual edible souvenir.

The Seto Inland Sea stretches from Kitakyushu to Oita, an area blessed with seafood such as fugu from Moji and Seki saba mackerel and Seki aji horse mackerel from Saganoseki in Oita. Along the Nippo Coast, superb rock oysters come into season in summer.

Amakusa in Kumamoto is home to many wild dolphins, and visitors can enjoy dolphin-watching tours.

Kinko Bay in Kagoshima, with Sakurajima sending up plumes at its center, offers more than abundant seafood. It also contains unusually deep water for a bay, and rumors even suggest deposits of rare metals in the north.

The seas around the Tokara and Amami island chains offer spectacular views quite different from those of mainland Kyushu.

Kyushu has been the setting for many chapters of history, and beautiful scenery preserving the character of different eras remains throughout the region.
Mojiko Retro preserves reminders of its prosperity as an international trading port from the Meiji period through the early Showa period. Red-brick buildings, Western-style architecture, and harbor views evoke Kyushu's role as a gateway to overseas destinations and Honshu. The historic Mojiko Station building was the first railway station in Japan to be designated an Important Cultural Property.

In Yanagawa, the canals of the former castle town still shape the cityscape. The waterside scenery was not created suddenly for tourism; it is also a legacy of the town's history and everyday life.

Nagasaki offers slopes, a harbor, churches, Western-style residences, Chinatown, and other scenery distinctive to a city that has long embraced overseas exchange. Although unmistakably Japanese, the city reveals intriguing foreign influences here and there.

Its appeal lies in how the memory of the city's prosperity remains visible in the scenery today.

Kyushu's food is delicious!

Travel guides are packed with local dishes, while Kyushu fairs are held across Japan, including in the Tokyo metropolitan area—clear signs of the region's popularity.

The source of this appeal may lie not only in Kyushu's wealth of ingredients, but also in its people's passion for food.

Consider the rich, sweet soy sauce enjoyed throughout Kyushu. There are several theories about why sweet varieties became widespread, including the idea that they were developed to bring out the best in fresh seafood. Pairing sweet, umami-rich soy sauce with sashimi prepared using ikejime or shinkeijime techniques shows just how much care goes into the way food is eaten.
And there are so many kinds of soy sauce! Take a look at the soy sauce section in Hakata Hankyu and you will be amazed.

Fukuoka and Oita also have traditions of eating raw mackerel, while Kagoshima and Miyazaki have established cultures of eating chicken sashimi. Great care is given to hygiene management and distribution to preserve these regional food traditions.

It is not only about the ingredients. Kyushu's food is delicious down to the way it is eaten.

Close to the Asian continent, Kyushu has exchanged with overseas cultures since ancient times, and that influence remains prominent in its food culture.

Nagasaki in particular has many specialties that reflect international connections, including castella, sara udon, and champon. Tonkotsu ramen, now widespread around Fukuoka and Kumamoto, can also be traced back to Kurume ramen. Kurume ramen is said to have been inspired by Nagasaki champon and the shina soba noodles that were popular in Yokohama.

Oita also has the famous confection Xavier, which evokes Nanban culture, while local sweets such as Kagoshima's maruboro and getanha have roots in the brown-sugar culture of the Ryukyu Islands.

Rather than simply preserving food cultures introduced from outside, Kyushu nurtured them into flavors of its own.
The blend of what is best about Japan and other countries is another fascinating feature of Kyushu cuisine.

Sake may be Japan's best-known traditional alcoholic drink, but in Kyushu, shochu is the signature spirit.
Some areas, such as Saga Prefecture, have a strong sake culture, but across Kyushu as a whole, shochu's presence is overwhelming. It is no exaggeration to say that Kyushu's food stands out precisely because of shochu.

Kyushu cuisine is proudly rich in sweetness and umami. That is exactly why it pairs so well with crisp, dry shochu.

Sake pairs well with sashimi, of course. But with sashimi dipped in Kyushu's sweet soy sauce, a drier shochu brings out even more of the fish's umami. The same is true of grilled meat, horse sashimi, and chicken sashimi.

Those who master shochu master the cuisine of Kyushu.
We wholeheartedly recommend enjoying them together!

Shochu itself comes in several varieties—including barley, sweet potato, rice, and brown sugar—with fascinating regional differences even within Kyushu. Comparing shochu as you travel around the region can be great fun.