PORT OF JAPAN
Shochu & Satsuma kiriko glassSatsuma Shuzo's Kedogawa Shochu factorySatsuma Shuzo's Kedogawa Shochu factory and museum, MeijiguraSatsuma Shuzo's Shochu bottles
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Take home in Kagoshima · #10 of the port's ten

Shochu & Satsuma kiriko glass

~2.5h — the round trip from the gangway, with the 60-minute margin kept aside.

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Photo: Dime Gontar from Kiev, Ukraine / CC BY 2.0

Tap a photo to see it large. 4 photographs, each credited.

Round trip
2 hr 30 min
From the ship and back
Fits
a 2–3 hour stop ashore
Margin already counted
Getting there
Tenmonkan / Sengan-en
See the rides below
Booking
Just turn up
Nothing to reserve
Why we send people here

Sweet-potato shochu is this prefecture’s wine, and Satsuma kiriko — deep-cut colored crystal once made for the lords — is the take-home that outlives the bottle.

Why it earns the hours
  • It is not only a photo stop: glass that died for a century, and pottery made by prisoners of war.
Before you count on it
  • No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
The story

Why Shochu & Satsuma kiriko glass is famous

Glass that died for a century, and pottery made by prisoners of war

Satsuma kiriko is cut glass in coloured overlay, developed under the Shimazu in the 1850s, destroyed along with the domain workshops in the 1860s, and revived from surviving pieces only in 1985. The signature is a gradation in the cut edge that machine glass cannot reproduce. Satsuma also distils more shochu than any other prefecture.

One craft was killed by a British bombardment and rebuilt in 1985 by reverse-engineering museum specimens. The other was founded by Korean potters brought here against their will in 1598, and their descendants are still working.

1598
Korean potters brought to Satsuma

Around eighty, as prisoners of the Korean campaigns; the Miyama kiln is founded

c. 1851
Satsuma kiriko begins

State industry under Shimazu Nariakira, alongside the cannon foundry

1858
Nariakira dies

The patronage that funded the glass begins to unravel

1863
The British bombardment

The glass works is damaged; production later ceases and the technique is lost

Do this

The kiriko gallery and workshop sit inside Sengan-en, so the garden visit covers both. Miyama's kilns need a car and half a day.

Read the whole story →
On the signs

Words you will see

Satsuma kiriko薩摩切子
Cut glass with an unusually thick colour layer, producing graded shadows in every cut.
Bokashiぼかし
The gradient effect that only Satsuma's thick colour layer can produce.
Shiro-Satsuma白薩摩
Ivory crackle ware painted in enamel and gold — historically for the lord alone.
Kuro-Satsuma黒薩摩
Dark iron-glazed ware for everyone else — and the clay of the shōchū kettle.
If you have longer

What fits alongside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare on a 6-hour stop ashore.

Rickshaw through the old town4 hr for bothThirty minutes at strolling pace past the stone walls of the samurai quarter, narrated by the runner. The rare bookable that fits even the shortest call.Satsuma-age, fried to order4 hr 30 min for bothThe fish cakes every Japanese supermarket imitates, eaten warm at the source. Agetateya fries batches through the day — buy two, eat one walking.Shirokuma at Tenmonkan Mujaki5 hr for bothThe original “polar bear” shaved ice — condensed milk, fruit, a face you will photograph before you eat it. This is the shop that invented it in 1946.
The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

The Tenmonkan sprint2–3 hours · ~2.5h door to doorShort calls — shirokuma, arcades, and back on the shuttle
Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →
4 hr for both

Rickshaw through the old town

Thirty minutes at strolling pace past the stone walls of the samurai quarter, narrated by the runner.

See the detail →4 hr 30 min for both

Satsuma-age, fried to order

The fish cakes every Japanese supermarket imitates, eaten warm at the source.

See the detail →5 hr for both

Shirokuma at Tenmonkan Mujaki

The original “polar bear” shaved ice — condensed milk, fruit, a face you will photograph before you eat it.

See the detail →
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Kagoshima plan page.