Just reposting a tidbit I put on my private page - William

Just reposting a tidbit I put on my private page - William

My adopted hometown of Higo (now Kumamoto) occupies a somewhat precarious position, sandwiched between Hakata (now Fukuoka), which was always closely controlled by Edo (now Tokyo), and Satsuma (now Kagoshima), which alone among all Japanese domains was never controlled by any one clan but the Shimazu (still the Shimazu) - they were always like, “Come and get us!” to the shogun, and the armies that trampled back and forth did so in my backyard, Higo (now Kumamoto). Even today, the Hakata and the Satsuma retain a mutual dislike, and nobody likes Kumamoto, us poor Higo-ko, as we’re still known. But that Tom Cruise movie, the Last Samurai, (very) loosely based on history, took place in my hometown. (Pictured: it’s like, “Sure, invade us! We have impassable mountains and caldera lakes and live volcanoes, and we know where all of them are, but you don’t!”).