Former Shimazu Family Buildings at Yoshino

Two Registered Buildings of the Former Shimazu Family at Yoshino

The former Shimazu family buildings at Yoshino stand in Yoshinocho, Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, two offices of the Shimazu family, both entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 23 August 1999. They are registered properties rather than designated ones. The mine office was built in 1904 and the forestry office in 1909.

The 2 are the former Shimazu Serigano gold mine office and the former Shimazu Yoshino forestry office. Both are owned by the company Shimazu Limited.

The mine office stands at 9688-1 Yoshinocho and the forestry office at 9688-24.

Brought to Yoshino from Other Villages

Neither building was raised where it now stands.

The Agency records the mine office as the Shimazu family's gold mine office, formerly in another village. Its date field reads 1904, with removals in 1923 and 1986.

The forestry office was built as the family's forestry office in a different village. Its date field reads 1909, with removal in 1986.

The mine office has been moved twice: once from the village where it was built, and again to its present site in 1986.

The former Kadowaki main house came from a mountain hamlet to a town, and the annex at the Tani Yutaka residence from an old family in the next town. Each was moved once.

These two came to Yoshino together in 1986. Buildings of the Shimazu family from separate villages were gathered into one place.

Western Verandas Under Japanese Roofs

Both buildings join Western construction to Japanese roofs.

The Agency records the mine office as a two-storeyed main block under a hipped roof, with an entrance under a half hip-and-gable roof and a projection under a convex roof. Its outer walls are clapboarded, and a veranda of continuous arches runs across the upper front, keeping a distinctive form in which a Western exterior carries a Japanese roof.

Of the forestry office, the record says a veranda of distinctive design and a porch under a convex roof stand on the front of a main block under a hipped roof.

A convex roof swells gently outward in its surface; clapboarding lays boards horizontally, each overlapping the one below.

For both, the record uses the word distinctive. The same pairing of veranda and convex roof appears in each.

The Makita Gumi head office lays brick over a timber frame for a Western look. Here a Western front carries a Japanese roof.

An Office for Digging Gold, an Office for Growing Trees

The two buildings served different undertakings of the same family.

The mine office was the office of a gold mine; the forestry office belonged to the work of planting and raising trees.

Mining and forestry, work below ground and work above it, now have their offices side by side in one town.

The Agency records that inside the forestry office a store room remains on the right, while the rest was made into one room and serves as a showroom for cut glass and other wares.

A building raised as an office became, where it came to rest, a place of display and sale. Its architect and builder are named in the record.

The record of the mine office names neither architect nor builder. Even two buildings registered on the same day differ in what the record keeps.

Visiting

Both stand in Yoshinocho, Kagoshima City, owned by the company Shimazu Limited.

The mine office is timber and two-storeyed, covering 158 square metres; the forestry office is timber and single-storeyed, covering 178 square metres.

The Ota power station was likewise built for a mine run by the Shimazu family, but bears the name of a later operator.

These two keep the family's name, with the word former, in their own names.

They belong to a company, so opening and terms follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.