Satsuma

Satsuma district lies among the hills of western Kyushu along the Sendai River. In the Kamakura period, members of the Shibuya family came from eastern Japan as stewards of lands in this country. Their Iriki-in branch held an estate here for generations. During the later sixteenth century it submitted to the expanding Shimazu, retaining part of its ancestral lands while much of the district passed into direct Shimazu control.