Regional Focus: Niihama

The Besshi Copper Mine Memorial Museum is located in the valley below the mine. It stands in the grounds of Ōyamazumi Shrine, which enshrines the guardian spirit of Besshi Copper Mine. The museum building is built into the ground, recalling the mine, and its roof is planted with azaleas, which bloom in vivid pinks in May. In front of the museum is a steam locomotive used on the mine railway, and also an electric locomotive and rolling stock.

The museum has exhibition areas on five themes; the history of Besshi and Sumitomo, the daily life of the miners, the geology that produced copper, mining techniques, and the story of how smoke pollution from copper smelting was overcome. Exhibits include models and dioramas, various products made of copper, prints from the Edo period, evocative photos, geological samples, and tools and clothing used by the miners.

Entry to the museum is free. Visits to the other museums and sites related to the copper mine are recommended.

Minetopia Besshi is a theme park based around the site of the Besshi Copper Mine in Niihama, comprising the Hadeba Zone in the valley, and the Tōnaru Zone on the mountainside.

In the Hadeba Zone is Minetopia Main Building with shops and a restaurant. Here you can try panning for gold and gemstones, and there’s also a hot spring bath. You can take a short ride to the Edutainment Park in a replica of the trains used on the mine railway. Inside a tunnel is a museum showing what the mine was like from the Edo period to modern times. There’s also a mine-themed play area, where children and adults can get a feel for what working in the mine was like. Vivid dioramas show the technical and human aspects of the mine through the ages.

Accessed by a winding mountain road, the Tōnaru Zone is popularly known as the Machu Picchu of the Orient, for its massive stone walls and brick structures standing on the mountainside 750 m above sea level. It was the site of one of the entrances to the mine and a community of mine workers. Exploring the ruins involves a lot of steps. Large ruins include the station of the aerial tramway which carried mined ore, passengers, and the goods which sustained the settlement of up to 5,000 people. A history museum depicts the daily life on the mountainside with evocative photos, and you can make a copper relief to take home.

Behind Besshi Copper Mine Memorial Museum is a small mountain topped with a brick chimney standing about 20 m high. A footpath goes up to the chimney through attractive woodland. The chimney stands on a flat shoulder of the hill. There’s a square of bricks embedded in the ground, showing the size of the chimney at its top. In spring, the cherry trees planted around blossom. The mountain, called Mt. Shōji, is generally known as Chimney Mountain. You can look out over the city of Niihama to the Seto Inland Sea and the mountains behind.

The chimney once belonged to the Yamane copper smelter built at the foot of the mountain in 1888. A flue went straight up the hill from the smelter to the chimney. However, winds from the mountains behind blew the smoke into the rice fields of Niihama below, causing the farmers to complain. The chimney is the oldest heritage of the heavy chemical industry in Japan.

Higurashi Villa Memorial Museum is a Western-style house on a hill in Niihama. The villa was originally located on Shisaka Island in the Seto Inland Sea as a place for monitoring emissions from the Sumitomo smelter there. It was designed by a leading architect of the Meiji era, with influences from the 19th century English Arts and Crafts movement. The house has Western-style features such as sash and casement windows, fireplaces, and chimneys. The foundations use bricks made of slag from the smelter. On the second floor are exhibitions on Sumitomo’s history and philosophy, the history of overcoming smoke pollution, and the history of copper refining and memories of Shisaka island.

It took two and half years to move the villa to its current location. Ninety-five percent of the original material was used, with each part including the floorboards being restored to exactly the same position. On the hill above the villa is a viewing platform where a circle of slag bricks indicates the size of the huge chimney completed in 1924 on Shisaka Island.

The Hirose Memorial Museum commemorates the life of Hirose Saihei, overseer of the Sumitomo operations at Besshi Copper Mine in Niihama. The museum comprises a modern exhibition hall and the elegant Meiji-period home where Saihei lived.

The exhibition hall, designed to resemble a ship, is built next to a large pond. The tower is a periscope with views of the mountain where the mine is, and the port of Niihama from which Saihei’s beloved smoke rose. At the entrance to the museum is a bronze of Saihei Hirose. The exhibition hall presents the life and achievements of Saihei.

The residence was originally built in central Niihama from the end of the Edo period to the middle of the Meiji period. It combined Hirose’s home and a guesthouse for important visitors. In 1887, the house was moved to its current site. It reflects the style of the Edo period with innovations from the West – porcelain lavatories, fireplaces, glass windows, and lightning conductors. In front of the house is a mass of cherry trees, and behind is a traditional Japanese garden.