Shimazu Yoshihiro
Kagoshima Castle was constructed in 1601 by Matsudaira Iehisa, head of the Shimazu clan and the first "daimyō" of the Satsuma Domain, during the early Edo period. A year earlier, Iehisa's father Shimazu Yoshihiro, one of the "daimyō" of the western alliance opposed to Tokugawa Ieyasu, was defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara. The castle was built shortly after the defeat and in the severe political tension with Ieyasu. Kagoshima Castle is notable for the small scale and fairly poor quality as a main castle of one of the richest domains in Japan. It is said that Shimazu was afraid of giving the Tokugawa an excuse to attack Shimazu territory by making too large a castle.