A Red-Brick Power House That Still Runs on the Nagara River
In the Tachibana district of Mino, a red-brick building with an unmistakably Japanese roofline has been feeding electricity into the grid for well over a century. This is the main building of the Nagara River Power Station, finished in March 1910, and it has never stopped working. The station takes no dam across the river. Instead a conduit close to five kilometres long carries water at a slack gradient until the accumulated fall is steep enough to drive the turbines waiting below, a layout engineers call a run-of-river station.
The building itself is compact: two storeys above ground, one below, with a footprint of 439 square metres under an iron-plate roof. When it opened it was the largest power plant of its kind in Japan, rated at 4,200 kilowatts, and its current travelled roughly fifty kilometres to light the growing city of Nagoya. The machinery has been renewed since, and the station now runs at 4,800 kilowatts, but the walls that house it are the originals laid down in the Meiji era.
From a Failed Dream to Nagoya's First Power Plant
The idea began with one man's frustration. Kobayashi Shigemasa, a former retainer of the Iwamura domain, saw the hydroelectric works powered by the Lake Biwa Canal in Kyoto and became convinced the Nagara could do the same. He secured water rights in 1897 and founded a company, but the slump that followed the First Sino-Japanese War starved it of capital, and the licence was revoked in 1904. His plan might have vanished there.
It was rescued by Noguchi Shitagau, then working for Siemens in Japan, who carried the abandoned scheme to the Nagoya Electric Light Company. Nagoya was short of power, and the firm decided to build on the Nagara before its planned works on the Kiso River. Construction started in 1908. Roads were poor, so the imported generators were hauled from Gifu Station by ox-cart for about a week, then floated to the site on large rafts. The station began generating on 15 March 1910, and the very next day its power lit the illuminations of a regional industrial exposition in Nagoya's Tsurumai Park.
The building was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2000, and in 2007 the station was recognised as a Modernisation Industrial Heritage site. It has passed through several operators, from Nagoya Electric Light to Toho Electric and wartime consolidation, before coming to Chubu Electric Power in 1951.
What to Look For at the Gable and the Turbine Yard
The detail worth crossing the river for sits high on the gable end. The brickwork carries a round opening in the manner of a rose window, a European gesture, yet the ridge is crowned with onigawara, the ornamental end-tiles of a Japanese tiled roof and a survivor of the building's earlier roofing. Western structure and native ornament share the same wall, a very Meiji kind of compromise. The plan was once L-shaped, joined to the generator hall, but the two have since been separated at ground level.
You cannot go inside; this is a live installation and the interior is closed. The brickwork reads clearly from the public road, though, and the yard in front rewards a stop. Displayed there is the original generating set, a Voith water turbine paired with a Siemens generator, both German-made, that ran here for seventy years until 1980. The old penstock pipe is visible too. Chubu Electric occasionally opens the grounds for guided tours; check ahead if you hope to see more than the exterior.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the main building?
- No. It is a working power station and the interior is closed to the public. The brick exterior is easily seen from the road, and the outdoor turbine display is open to anyone.
- Is the station still generating electricity?
- Yes. It has run continuously since 1910. The turbines and generators were replaced in 1981, raising output to 4,800 kilowatts, and it now supplies parts of Mino and Gujo.
- What is the machine displayed outside?
- It is the original generating set: a Voith turbine and a Siemens generator, both imported from Germany, that operated at the station for seventy years before retirement in 1980.
- How do I get there?
- The station stands in Tachibana, Mino City, Gifu, reached by crossing Tachibana Bridge off National Route 156. The nearest rail stop is on the Nagaragawa Railway Etsumi-Nan Line.
Basic Information
| Name | Nagara River Power Station Main Building |
|---|---|
| Location | 844-1 Tachibana, Mino City, Gifu Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 2000) |
| Built | 1910 (Meiji 43) |
| Structure | Brick, two storeys with one basement, iron-plate roof, floor area 439 m2 |
| Owner | Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. |
| Access | Interior closed; exterior and outdoor turbine display viewable from the grounds |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database — Nagara River Power Station Main Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002039
- Mino City — Nagara River Power Station Main Building and Eight Related Structures
- https://www.city.mino.gifu.jp/docs/1174.html
- Wikipedia — Nagara River Power Station
- https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/長良川発電所
Last verified: 2026.07.03