Early modern period Shokuhō period Katō Kiyomasa, a contemporary of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was made
daimyō of half of the (old) administrative region of
Higo in 1588. Afterwards, Kiyomasa built
Kumamoto Castle. Due to its many innovative defensive designs, Kumamoto Castle was considered impenetrable, and Kiyomasa enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest castle-builders in Japanese history.
Edo period After Kiyomasa died in 1611, his son, Tadahiro, succeeded him. In 1632, Tadahiro was removed by
Tokugawa Iemitsu and replaced with the
Hosokawa clan.
Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the third lord of Kumamoto, was the patron of the artist and
swordsman Miyamoto Musashi File:Statue of Hosokawa Tadatoshi.jpg|Statue of
Hosokawa Tadatoshi within
Suizen-ji Jōju-en File:Hidari mitsudomoe.svg|
Mon of
Miyamoto Musashi, born in
Ōhara-chō province of Mimasaka Late modern period Meiji period The current administrative body of the City of Kumamoto was founded on April 1, 1889.
Showa period On July 1, 1945, near the end of World War II, Kumamoto was bombed in an
Allied air raid that destroyed one square mile, which was 20% of the city's area.
Contemporary history After World War II After the war, the Japanese Buddhist monk
Nichidatsu Fujii decided to construct a
Peace Pagoda atop Mount Hanaoka in the city to commemorate all those lost in war and to promote peace. Inaugurated in 1954, it was the first of over 80 Peace Pagodas built by Fujii and his followers all over the world.
Heisei period On February 1, 1991, the towns of
Akita,
Kawachi,
Tenmei, and
Hokubu (all from
Hōtaku District) were merged into Kumamoto. On October 6, 2008, the town of
Tomiai (from
Shimomashiki District) was merged into Kumamoto. On March 23, 2010, the town of
Jōnan (also from Shimomashiki District) and the town of
Ueki (from
Kamoto District) were merged into Kumamoto. A
series of earthquakes struck the area beginning April 14, 2016, including a tremor with
moment magnitude 7.1 early in the morning of April 16, 2016. ==Geography==