One Tunnel, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 1997
Misaka Tunnel (御坂隧道, Misaka Zuido) runs from Fujinoki in Fuefuki City to Kawaguchi in Fujikawaguchiko Town, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture, a Showa-period structure entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 12 December 1997. It is a registered property rather than a designated one.
The quantity is one structure. The owner is Yamanashi Prefecture.
It is of reinforced concrete and runs 394 metres. The date field reads early Showa and the year field 1931.
An Assessment That Grants the Plainness First
On its appearance, the record speaks modestly.
The Agency closes that the portals are comparatively plain in treatment, yet that the tunnel cannot be left out of any account of how transport in the prefecture was modernised.
The portals are the mouths of the tunnel. Their ornament, the record says at the outset, is plain.
At Rokuzankan, the spire and rose windows carry the assessment. At Takegawara Onsen, the building is called weighty and richly made.
Here the plainness is granted first, and the value stated on other grounds.
That it cannot be left out: as a way of stating value this is the twentieth met.
Built Because a Road Changed Its Course
A change in the line of a road brought this tunnel into being.
The Agency records that it was built when the old national highway was rerouted from its crossing at one pass to another.
The road had gone over one pass; it came to go over another. The tunnel followed from that.
At the Kubiki Railway locomotive shed, the line closed and the use changed, so the present use stands in brackets after the name. There a building changed its purpose.
Here a road changed its line and a new structure was made. Not a building altered, but a road moved and a building born of it.
The record calls it a road tunnel built to cross the pass. Its purpose is set down plainly.
Counted Neither in Buildings Nor in Places
The unit of quantity differs from that used for buildings.
The quantity is one structure: a tunnel, counted as one.
Buildings are counted in structures of another word. The Yakushizawa waterway works are one place, Futatsuzuka Kofun one tomb, the Rumoi fishing gear 3,745 items.
The tomb is counted by the unit proper to tombs. This is counted by the unit proper to engineering works. The same word, different things counted.
It runs 394 metres and is 5.5 metres wide, the shoulders included. Length and width are given; no area.
The Tatsumi canal runs 11 kilometres, the Yakushizawa works 38 metres. This falls between.
Visiting
The tunnel runs from Fujinoki in Fuefuki City to Kawaguchi in Fujikawaguchiko Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, owned by the prefecture.
It lies across two municipalities: being a tunnel, its two mouths fall under different local authorities.
It is of reinforced concrete, built in 1931, early in the Showa years.
The Agency closes that it cannot be left out of any account of how transport in the prefecture was modernised.
The prefecture owns this road structure, so passage and its terms follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.
Q&A
- When was the tunnel registered?
- On 12 December 1997, as a registered tangible cultural property. It is registered rather than designated, and the quantity is one structure.
- Why was it built?
- Because the old national highway was rerouted from its crossing at one pass to another. It is a road tunnel built to cross that pass.
- How long is it?
- It runs 394 metres and is 5.5 metres wide, the shoulders included. The structure is of reinforced concrete.
- What is valued in it?
- That though its portals are comparatively plain in treatment, it cannot be left out of any account of how transport in the prefecture was modernised.
- Where does it run?
- From Fujinoki in Fuefuki City to Kawaguchi in Fujikawaguchiko Town, across two municipalities.
Basic Information
| Name | Misaka Tunnel (御坂隧道, Misaka Zuido) |
|---|---|
| Location | Fujinoki, Fuefuki City to Kawaguchi, Fujikawaguchiko Town, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered tangible cultural property (structure, modern other); registered rather than designated |
| Year Designated | 1997 (12 December), registered |
| Quantity | 1 structure; counted by the unit proper to engineering works rather than to buildings |
| Dimensions | Reinforced concrete, running 394 metres and 5.5 metres wide with the shoulders included. No area is recorded. The date field reads early Showa and the year field 1931 |
| Owner | Yamanashi Prefecture |
| Public Access | A road structure owned by the prefecture; passage and its terms follow the owner's arrangements |
References
- Cultural Heritage Online: Misaka Tunnel
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/191409
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/
- Fuefuki City: cultural properties
- https://www.city.fuefuki.yamanashi.jp/shisetsu/bunkazaihoka/044.html
- Yamanashi Prefecture: cultural properties
- https://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/
Last verified: 2026.09.17