Kumamoto

/kooh'meuh moh"toh/; Japn. /kooh"mah maw"taw/, n.

a city on W central Kyushu, in SW Japan. 525,613.

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▪ Japan

      city and prefectural capital, Kumamoto ken (prefecture), central Kyushu, Japan. Kumamoto has long been the largest and most influential city of central Kyushu. It is known for its castle and for Suizenji Park, which is one of the three most famous gardens in Japan. The original castle, partly destroyed in 1877, was restored in 1960. The castle contains a museum of city history, with ancient Japanese armour and other relics. Suizenji Park was completed in 1632 by the priest Gentaku, under the auspices of the Hosokawa family, which ruled the region. A university was founded in Kumamoto in 1949. The Japanophile Lafcadio Hearn (Hearn, Lafcadio) lived for three years in Kumamoto. The city's main industries are electrical equipment, machinery, and foodstuffs. Pop. (2000) 662,012.

▪ prefecture, Japan

      ken (prefecture), located in central Kyushu, Japan, facing the Amakusa Sea and including the Amakusa Archipelago. The city of Kumamoto is the prefectural capital.

      The prefecture, once predominantly agricultural, now has a strong manufacturing and service-oriented economy. Rice, fruits and vegetables, and livestock all contribute to agricultural production. Forestry is important in the interior mountains, as is fishing along the coasts and islands. Manufactures include electronics (notably semiconductors), automobiles, and processed foods. Tourism, of growing importance, centres on the enormous crater of Mount Aso in Aso-Kujo National Park in the northeast. Yatsushiro, on the coast, was linked by Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kagoshima (south) in 2004. Area 2,859 square miles (7,404 square km). Pop. (2002 est.) 1,858,000.

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