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Old Red Town & Japanese-style Mansions:
Fukiya Furusato Village

Getting to Bitchu Takahashi Station:

Approx. 50min. from Okayama Station by local train
or approx. 35min. by limited express, "Yakumo" on JR Hakubi Line

Takahashi Bus Terminal is located in the Takahashi City Complex with the Takahashi City Library.

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Fukiya Kouta Dance in Fukiya Furusato Village Cycling Road Race Flower Arrangement Performed in Hirokane Residence

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  • Bonnet-type Bus
  • Main Street of Fukiya
  • Former Fukiya Elementary School
  • Classroom of Former Fukiya Elementary School

Travel through Time by Visiting Old Copper Mine Town. - Historical Townscape of Fukiya -

The historical Townscape of Fukiya is designated as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings in Japan. It sits at an altitude of 550 meters, or 1,800 feet. The main street is about 300 meters long, or 985 feet. It is lined with unified traditional local houses with their reddish copper-colored roof tiles and outer walls covered with a coat of plaster in which colcothar is kneaded. It was added to Japan's Heritage list as the birthplace of "Japan red" with other related cultural properties such as the Bengara (colcothar) Factory Museum in June 2020.

In 1707, a production method for high-quality colcothar was discovered, and the colcothar started to be produced. In the middle of the 18th century, a new manufacturing method of colcothar made from artificial melanterite brought the area a fortune. Powerful merchants, including the Katayama Family and its branch families, formed the unified town coordinated with red in the early 19th century. Fukiya had thrived as the only production area of colcothar in Japan until the middle of the 20th century.

Painted with the red pigment rated as one of Japan's highest quality pigments, plenty of ceramic wares, including Imari ware and Kutani ware, were exported to Europe through the Dutch East India Company. These products became extremely popular and got high evaluation in Europe.

Nearby is Former Fukiya Elementary School. It was opened in 1873 and relocated to its present site in 1899. The wooden flat school buildings located on the right and left sides were finished in 1900, and then the two-story main school building was completed in 1909. The school was closed in March 2012. They were the oldest extant Japanese-style wooden school buildings for compulsory education in Japan. Takahashi City has carried out a building renovation between October 2015 and March 2022. It restarted as a museum on April 21, 2022. The school building is lit up everyday from August 10 through August 21 and Fridays and Saturdays from July 1 through September 30, 2022 except the period.

Hill Climb Challenge Series in Takahashi is held in Takahashi City on the first Sunday of October and the previous Saturday. It is a bicycle race in which anyone from a beginner to an advanced person is allowed to participate. The cycle racers registered in advance check in on the first day of the event. They run either the long distance of 15km, or 9.3mi, or the short distance of 10km, or 6.2mi, for Historical Townscape of Fukiya, after a warm-up run of 2.5km, or 1.55mi, from a junior high school near Bitchu Kawamo Station the next day.

Ten-minute tour by bonnet bus is available to travel around the Fukiya area every Sunday afternoon from July 2022 to September 2022.

Getting here: 60 min. by bus from Bitchu Takahashi Bus Terminal

A taxi tour in Takahashi City for more than two and a half hours at a discount fare is available. Make sure to tell "private sightseeing charter" to the driver before your departure.

Rental power-assisted bicycles available at Tourist Association Fukiya Branch on weekends and national holidays from April to November without reservations. Reservation required for weekday rentals.

Click here to jump to the sightseeing map of Fukiya Furusato Village

  • Hirokane Residence in Fukiya Furusato Village
  • Chinese Peony
  • Fireplace in Hirokane Residence

See Everyday Life of Japanese Wealthy Merchants. - Hirokane Residence -

The Hirokane Family served as the village head of Onoro, at the beginning of the 19th century, made a fortune by operating a copper mine and producing ferric oxide, a material of colcothar. The castle-like residence has stone walls as magnificent as real castles to represent their wealth. It was used as a location for the shootings of some movie films and TV dramas such as Yatsuhaka Mura, or Village of the Eight Tombs, a famous Japanese mystery story.

Around mid-May, it holds the Flower Viewing Tour to admire flower arrangements by flower coordinators from Okayama Prefecture. Various seasonal flowers, including red and white Chinese peony flowers, are displayed in the main building and the annex across a short corridor. The extension was built to be used at a wedding ceremony of the head of the family nearly 100 years ago. It has been closed except for the exhibition. Locally made tea is served in the tea house on the hill across from Hirokane Residence and has a fine view of the residence at the event.

Getting here: 50 min. by taxi from Bitchu Takahashi Station

A taxi tour in Takahashi City for more than two and a half hours at a discount fare is available. Make sure to tell "private sightseeing charter" to the driver before your departure.

Click here to jump to the sightseeing map of Fukiya Furusato Village

Closed: December 19 to 25 2022, December 29 to January 3

Admission: Adult 400 yen / elementary, junior high school, high school students 200 yen / Adult 1,000 yen, Child 500 yen, for combined tickets available for 5 facilities ( Former Residence of the Katayama Family, Fukiya Historical Museum, Hirokane Residence, Bengara [ colcothar ] Factory Museum and Sasaune Mine Shaft )

Group discount available for a group of 20 or more people.

  • Entrance of Nishie Residence
  • Front od Nishie Residence
  • Bengara(colcothar) Factory Museum
  • Sasaune Mine Shaft

Get a Feel for Atmosphere of Former Copper Mine. -Nishie Residence, Bengara (colcothar) Factory Museum, and Sasaune Mine Shaft -

The Nishie family were wealthy farmer-merchants who were delegated to manage the area by the Edo shogunate. They operated a mine where ferric oxide, a raw material of colcothar, was reserved and succeeded in refining melanterite from ferric oxide for the first time in Japan. There is a long steep slope stretching from a parking lot in which a bus stop lies to Nishie Residence. The nearly 300-year-old residence includes several buildings and a garden with moss surrounding them. It is managed and maintained by the family that still lives here.

Bengara Factory Museum showcases the process of how colcothar was made in the early 20th century. The water wheel-driven process can be observed closely.

Sasaune Mine Shaft of Yoshioka Mine was restored as a mining gallery of around 320 meters, or 1,050 feet, with lots of ups and downs and traces of hand drilling in 1978. Yoshioka Mine was found in 807 and has been well-known as a copper mine since the 17th century. Modern technologies such as dynamite and steam engines brought about technological innovation in the mining industry around the end of the 19th century. Yoshioka Mine became counted as one of the three major copper mines of Japan. More than 1,600 miners were working at the peak. It yielded copper pyrite and pyrrhotite until 1972. The inner temperature remains 15 degrees Celsius, 59 degrees Fahrenheit, throughout the year.

Nishie Residence

Getting to Nishie Residence: 50 min. by taxi from Bitchu Takahashi Station / 60 min. by bus for Sakamoto from Bitchu Takahashi Bus Terminal / 45 min. by bus from Niimi Station

A taxi tour in Takahashi City for more than two and a half hours at a discount fare is available. Make sure to tell "private sightseeing charter" to the driver before your departure.

Closed: Year-end and New Year holidays, no fixed closing days between December and February

Admission: Adult 500 yen / elementary, junior high school, high school students 250 yen

Group discount available for a group of 20 or more people.

Bengara ( colcothar ) Factory Museum & Sasaune Mine Shaft

Getting to Bengara ( colcothar ) Factory Museum and Sasaune Mine Shaft: 55 min. by bus from Bitchu Takahashi Bus Terminal to Fukiya, and then 20 minute on foot

A taxi tour in Takahashi City for more than two and a half hours at a discount fare is available. Make sure to tell "private sightseeing charter" to the driver before your departure.

Closed: December 29 to January 3, Tuesday through Friday except public holidays, February 10, 21 & 28 between December 2022 and March 2023, Sasaune Mine Shaft is temporarily closed due to maintenance for the time being.

Admission to Bengara ( colcothar ) Factory Museum: 300 yen for adults / 150 yen for children

Admission to Sasaune Mine Shaft: Adult 400 yen / Child 200 yen

Adult 1,000 yen Child 500 yen, for combined tickets available for 5 facilities ( Former Residence of the Katayama Family, Fukiya Historical Museum, Hirokane Residence, Bengara [ colcothar ] Factory Museum and Sasaune Mine Shaft )

Group discount available for a group of 20 or more people.

Sightseeing Map of Fukiya Furusato Village