was a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Aira District,

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. As of June 1, 2005, the town had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 9,041 (4,202 men and 4,839 women) and the

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

of 71.27 persons per km². The total area was 129.66 km². On November 7, 2005, Makizono, along the city of Kokubu, with the towns of Kirishima (former), Fukuyama, Hayato, Mizobe and Yokogawa (all from Aira District), was merged to create the city of Kirishima and no longer exists as an independent

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. Some of the first inhabitants of this area were the Kumaso people of the early

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

. Archeological digs in the Manzen district have revealed ancient artifacts most likely used by the Kumaso. Kumaso no Ana in the neighboring town of Hayato (now also part of Kirishima) is a cave thought to have been used by the Kumaso. The earliest recorded name of Makizono, is Inazumi-go. In Japanese "ina" refers to rice and "zumi" means a vast collection, or a pile. "Go" means village or hamlet. In other words, the area was known for its bountiful rice harvests. Later texts from the

Tokugawa period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

name the area that is now Makizono, Odori-go. "Odori" is the Japanese word for dancing, and it is said that this name was given to the town by visitors who noted the jovial nature of the local residents. While you rarely see mention of these former names in the current town, the hot spring inn located in the Shukukubota district, Iwaibashi Onsen Inn, has the characters for Odori-go written in large print on the side of their hot spring facilities.

References

External links

Official website of Kirishima
Dissolved municipalities of Kagoshima Prefecture Kirishima, Kagoshima {{Kagoshima-geo-stub