Kagoshima is asteroid #4703 and also known as 1988 BL. Kagoshima was discovered by the Japanese amateur astronomers Mukai Masaru (向井 優) and Takeishi Masanori (武石 正憲) at the YCPM Kagoshima Station. Kagoshima is a member of the Hirayama-family Flora/ Ariadne.

Kagoshima is named after the city, where the discoverer of this asteroid lives. This city is Kagoshima-shi (鹿児島市) in Kagoshima-ken (鹿児島県) at the southernmost end of the Japanese island Kyūshū (九州), which is the third-largest of the Japanese islands. The city bears the nickname Naples of the Eastern World because of its bay area, its stratovolcano and its hot climate. Kagoshima-shi (鹿児島市) is also known for its many distilleries and its role in history. Kagoshima-shi (鹿児島市) was the birthplace as well as the place of the final stand of Saigō Takamori (西鄕 隆盛), the leader of the last rebellion of the samurai, which inspired the movie The Last Samurai.

Kagoshima City was during the time of the samurai the hometown of the clan Shimazu, who were vassals of the Satsuma, who had fought versus the Tokugawa until the Tokugawa won in 1603 and governed Japan from then on. Kagoshima City was the first place, from where the Tokugawa ban on foreign travel was broken by seventeen young men of the Satsuma clan. They came back with insights in western science and technology. Hence Kagoshima City is known as the place, where Japan’s industrial revolution began.

The people of Kagoshima City speak a special dialect, known as Satsugū-hōgen (薩隅方言) or Kagomma-ben (鹿児島弁), where Kagomma is the pronunciation of Kagoshima (鹿児島) in Kagomma-ben (鹿児島弁). Most other Japanese aren’t able to understand Kagomma-ben (鹿児島弁). The name Kagoshima (鹿児島) can be translated as island of young deer.

The discoverers of this asteroid did together discover all the asteroids, that they discovered. These were thirteen asteroids in total. So this group should be good for a test, whether the asteroids discovered by the same discoverers have meanings similar or connected with each other. Kagoshima of course is a a place name asteroid hinting to a certain city in Japan. Kagoshima can also represent the territory of young deer. This also is a task for a place name asteroid. Maybe Kagoshima also hints to places with difficult dialects or to places, where historical changes away from a traditional attitude and towards a modern attitude took place.