Ashio Copper Mine: Key Player in Japan’s Modernization

The entrance to the Ashio copper mine.

The trolley train station also houses the attraction’s ticket office.

A trolley train enters the Tsūdō mine shaft, where mining operations began in 1885.

Exhibits line the trolley train route.

The mine’s many underground shafts snake through the surrounding rock, stretching a total of 1,200 kilometers.

Realistic figures recreate the backbreaking labor of Edo-period mine workers.

Along the tracks, an exhibit at the site of the old mint shows how Kan’ei Tsūhō copper coins were produced.

Mining operations were gradually modernized with the adoption of compressors and other machinery.

Pushing the plunger to set off dynamite. Visitors can push a button to hear the workman’s warning shout and the sound of the explosion.

An exhibit inside the mine displays a model of the mine’s copper smelter and the first electric trolley.

The Watarase River runs near the plaza where the trolley trains operate.

The iron truss Furukawa Bridge (foreground), an important cultural property, spans the Matsuki River, a tributary of the Watarase River. The old Honzan smelter stands idle in the background.

A lone smokestack stands on the forested riverbank.