Gate to Kagoshima

Author/Guide: Poppy Kuroki

Why a Booktrail?

1877, 2005: A student travels to Japan and ends up time-travelling to the last days of the Samurai

ISBN: 978-0861547616
Genre: Fiction, Timeslip

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What you need to know before your trail

2005: While researching her Japanese ancestors, Isla travels from Scotland to Kagoshima. There, a vicious typhoon hurls her through a strange white gate and back to 1877, amid the dawn of the Satsuma Rebellion – the conflict that ended the samurai.

When she meets Keiichiro Maeda, a samurai who introduces her to a way of life only previously encountered in books, Isla begins to wonder if she has found her true home. But as the samurai fight a losing battle, she is increasingly distraught. Should she forewarn Keiichiro and save the man she loves or let him die the glorious death he so believes in, proud to the end that he remained a faithful warrior?

And what will come of Isla? Is she willing to leave the past behind, knowing her future will forever be changed?

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Travel Guide

Kagoshima

Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyūshū, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the “Naples of the Eastern world” for its bay location, hot climate, and volcano, Sakurajima.

The city was officially founded on April 1, 1889 and merged with Taniyama City on April 29, 1967 and with Yoshida Town, Sakurajima Town, Kiire Town, Matsumoto Town and Kōriyama Town on November 1, 2004.

Satsuma Rebellion

The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the Seinan War was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government of Japan, nine years into the Meiji era. The rebellion lasted from 29 January until 24 September of 1877, when it was decisively crushed, and its leader, Saigō Takamori, was killed.