Himi Tunnel

Himi Tunnel: A Taisho-Era Road Tunnel at Nagasaki's Eastern Gate

The Himi Tunnel (日見トンネル) is a concrete road tunnel completed in 1926 through the Himi Pass, running from Honkawachimachi to Nogizukamachi in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2002.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as 642 metres long and 7.4 metres wide: a two-lane structure bored through the pass that formed the main land gateway to Nagasaki, with horseshoe-shaped portals framed by stone-faced arches. It belongs to the national government (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).

The Himi Pass was notorious as the steepest stretch of the Edo-period Nagasaki Kaido. According to the ministry's Nagasaki office, a new road for rickshaws and carts was opened in 1882 by cutting the pass down by 110 shaku (33 metres).

Why It Was Registered

The Himi Tunnel is registration number 42-0011, listed under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency praises the decorative portals at each end, with incised joint lines on the walls and pilasters, and notes that the tunnel still conveys a modern road landscape even as a trunk route.

Nagasaki Prefecture explains that the 1882 road could not cope with the spread of motor vehicles, so the prefecture began work in 1924 and finished two years later at a cost of about 477,000 yen. It was among the largest tunnels in Japan at the time and one of the first full-scale road tunnels of the motor age, valuable in the history of Japanese tunnelling.

The ministry says the tunnel served as the only trunk route into Nagasaki through the Showa era. In 1999 the New Himi Tunnel, 1,055 metres long, opened on the National Route 34 Himi bypass.

What to Look For

The portals are the highlight of the Himi Tunnel. Stone-faced arches frame the horseshoe openings, pilasters flank them, and the walls are incised to look like masonry. Nagasaki Prefecture calls the design accomplished work that strongly retains the Taisho style.

Above the tunnel, the Edo-period Nagasaki Kaido survives over the Himi Pass, selected as a historic national road in 1996, according to the ministry. Edo highway, Meiji road, Taisho tunnel and Heisei bypass: the whole history of crossing the pass can be traced in one place.

Visiting the Himi Tunnel

The Himi Tunnel is still in use as a road. The portals can be seen from nearby, but traffic passes through, so view them from a footpath or other safe spot.

Nagasaki Prefecture gives the nearest stop as the Nogizuka bus stop, about 10 minutes on foot.