Former Onoda Cement Company Shaft Kiln (Tokkuri Kiln)

Japan's Only Surviving Cement Shaft Kiln

The Former Onoda Cement Company Shaft Kiln (Tokkuri Kiln) (旧小野田セメント製造株式会社竪窯) is a brick shaft kiln for burning cement, built in 1883 in the south-east corner of the Taiheiyo Cement Onoda plant at Onoda, Sanyo-Onoda City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on December 10, 2004. Its shape has earned it the name Tokkuri Kiln, after a sake flask (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Sanyo-Onoda City).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a brick shaft kiln 6.7 by 6.6 metres and 17.8 metres high overall; owned by Taiheiyo Cement. The area around it is also designated by the prefecture as the Onoda Cement Tokkuri Kiln (Sanyo-Onoda City).

Japan's First Private Cement Company

According to Yamaguchi Prefecture, Onoda Cement, Japan's first private cement company, was founded at Onoda by Kasai Junpachi in 1881. This kiln is one of four shaft kilns built in 1883 for burning cement, and it keeps its base intact.

The shaft kilns were used throughout the Meiji period but lost importance as Dietzsch kilns and other types were introduced; they stopped working in 1913, and all but this one were removed (Yamaguchi Prefecture). The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it was partly altered around 1897 to increase capacity.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Former Onoda Cement Shaft Kiln was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004 for its high historical value. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it the only complete surviving cement-burning shaft kiln in Japan, of great value in the history of modern ceramics industry, and the core facility of the company that underpinned the modernisation of construction in western Japan.

What to Look For

The Former Onoda Cement Shaft Kiln is a brick structure of a burning chamber and a chimney, rising about 18 metres from the bottom of the stoke hole (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Sanyo-Onoda City).

Its flask-like silhouette, narrowing from the burning chamber into the chimney, gives it its popular name (Yamaguchi Prefecture).

Visiting

The Former Onoda Cement Shaft Kiln is at 6276 Onoda (Wakaomachi), Sanyo-Onoda City, about 3 minutes' walk from Minami-Onoda Station on the JR Onoda Line, or 15 minutes by car from the Onoda interchange on the Sanyo Expressway (Sanyo-Onoda City). As it stands within a factory site, check viewing arrangements with the city's cultural properties section (0836-82-1205).