Kyushu Electric Power Ota Power Station Main Building

One Power Station Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2008

Kyushu Electric Power Ota Power Station Main Building (九州電力大田発電所本館) stands at 3109-1 Kanda, Ota, Ijuin-cho, Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, a Meiji-period building entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 7 March 2008. It is a registered property rather than a designated one.

The quantity is one building. The owner is Kyushu Electric Power Company.

The structure is stone, single-storeyed, tiled, with a floor area of 188 square metres and a tower. The date field reads Meiji and the year field 1908, with repairs in 1953.

The Name Shows Today's Operator; the Crest Shows the Builder

One building carries traces of two owners.

The name begins with the power company, which also owns the building.

The Agency, however, records a distinctive exterior with the crest of the Shimazu family on the gable end, and describes the building as a facility connected with a mine run by that family, who contributed to the modernisation of Kagoshima.

It was built for a mine the Shimazu ran; its name belongs to the later operator. Name and exterior show owners of different times.

At the former Yamanaka main house, the word former with the family name gives the earlier owner and the brackets the present name.

Here the name speaks of the present and the crest on the wall of the past. Name and building divide the roles.

A Power Station Built of Stone

An industrial facility is raised in laid stone.

The structure is stone and single-storeyed, recorded as 15 metres by 12 metres.

Among modern buildings met so far, Rokuzankan lays brick over reinforced concrete, and Sama House sets timber over a concrete basement.

Here stone is the principal material: a hydroelectric station's building made of stone.

The Agency locates it on the left bank of a river in its middle course. A facility that uses the river's water stands beside it.

It was repaired in 1953, 45 years after it was built.

An Octagonal Tower at One Corner

From one corner of a rectangular building, an eight-sided part projects.

The Agency records an octagonal tower thrown out at the southern corner.

A tower of this kind rises at a corner or above the roof. The structure field notes it as well: with a tower.

At the Oishi inner storehouse, a connecting corridor, and at the Shigeta main house, a flanking wall, are noted in the structure field as attachments.

Here what is noted is a tower. The part that gives the exterior its character is written into the structure.

The octagonal tower and the crest on the gable together make the distinctive exterior the record describes.

Visiting

The building stands at 3109-1 Kanda, Ota, Ijuin-cho, Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, owned by the power company.

It lies on the left bank of the river in its middle course.

It is of stone, single-storeyed, covering 188 square metres, with an octagonal tower at the southern corner.

It is a power-station facility owned by an electricity company, so entry to the grounds and viewing follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.

The name calls it the main building: the central one among the station's buildings.