Shimazu Tadatsune (1576 – 1638) was a feudal lord (daimyo) of the Satsuma Domain, a region encompassing much of today’s Kagoshima Prefecture. In 1602, he voluntarily professed his loyalty to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate and rulers of Japan until 1868. As a result, Shimazu Tadatsune was allowed to remain the head of the Shimazu clan. He managed his fiefdom (hon) from the Tsurumaru Castle after it was finished in 1604. Also called Kagoshima Castle, it remained the center of local political power until it was burned in 1874 and then seized by the imperial army at the end of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. All that remains today is the moat beneath this footbridge and a few stone walls. Most interesting are the bullet holes from the Battle of Shiroyama.
