Sado Gold Mine (Sado Kinzan)

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About Sado Gold Mine (Sado Kinzan)

The Aikawa mine was discovered around 1601 and, under direct control of the Tokugawa shogunate, became Japan’s largest producer of gold and silver during the Edo period. It operated until 1989, nearly four centuries. In 2024, UNESCO inscribed the Sado Island Gold Mines on the World Heritage list, noting the continuity of manual mining for more than 250 years.

The main visit, at Sado Kinzan, includes two tunnels. The Sodayu tunnel, from the Edo period, uses life-size mechanical figures to show how miners excavated, drained water and carried ore by hand through narrow galleries. The Doyu tunnel, opened at the end of the 19th century, demonstrates more modern mining, with rails, machines and shafts, up to the end of operations.

Above the tunnels, Doyu mountain in Warito, split in two by centuries of open-pit excavation, leaves a gap about 30 meters wide high on the slope, visible from several points along the road. A museum beside the entrance displays gold bars, documents and scale models.

In Aikawa, a few minutes’ drive away, the concrete ruins of the Kitazawa flotation plant, overgrown with vegetation, show the scale of 20th-century industry and are sometimes illuminated at night during certain seasons. The town of Aikawa, which grew with the mine, preserves streets of wooden houses of miners and craftsmen. A full visit takes half a day.