Toi Gold Mine
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The was an important
gold mine Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to more comple ...
during the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, located within what is now part of the city of Izu,
Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...
in the middle of the
Izu Peninsula The is a mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan, the largest of the four main islands of Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsu ...
. It remained in operation to the mid-twentieth century.


History

Small-scale
gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...
is said to have started at Toi around 1370 during the period of the Ashikaga shogunate. Toi Gold Museum The gold mine was operated on a large scale from the time of
Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...
in the late 16th century. Several mines were open in 1577, but Tokugawa Ieyasu expanded production from 1601. He put the exploitation of the mine under the responsibility of a '' Kinzan Bugyō'' selected from the
Ōkubo clan The were a ''samurai'' kin group which rose to prominence in the Sengoku period and the Edo periods.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit."Universität Tübingen (in German) Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the Ōkubo, as heredit ...
. Toi was one of around 60 goldmines located in the Izu Peninsula, including Yugashima and Nawaji. The gold and silver produced by these mines permitted the production of
Tokugawa coinage Tokugawa coinage was a unitary and independent metallic monetary system established by ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1601 in Japan, and which lasted throughout the Tokugawa period until its end in 1867. History The establishment of Tokugawa co ...
, and allowed for the prosperity of the Tokugawa. The village of Toi itself became highly prosperous, with numerous trades flooding in to service the workers and the administration at the gold mine, so that Toi became known as "Toi Sengen" (土肥千軒, "Toi of the 1,000 shops"). The mine became less productive as it became flooded. Workers were killed because of the exhausting conditions due to seeping
hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...
s and poor oxygen content of air, leading to the installation of water pumps and ventilators at numerous intervals.Toi gold museum In 1917, gold was again discovered at the mine, and exploitation continued under the company Toi Kinzan KK. In 1931, the mine entered
Sumitomo Group The is a Japanese corporate group and ''keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. In ...
, and passed under Toi Kōgyō KK in 1942. The mine was ultimately closed in 1965 and then reopened for tourism.


Characteristics

Toi was the second most productive gold mine in Japan, after the gold mine of Sado in
Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
. During its period of exploitation, it produced in total 40 tons of gold and 400 tons of silver, whereas Sado produced as much as 80 tons of gold. One ton of rock would produce in average 5 to 10 grams of gold, although 30 grams ore was common, and some rock has yielded as much as 600 g of gold per ton.


Galleries

The galleries of the mine total about 100 kilometers in length, over a surface of 37
hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...
, and go as deep as 180 meters below sea level. The area visible for tourism is about 350m long, and goes about 150 meters deep into mountain rock.


Legacy

The mine is now partially open for visits, and has become a tourist attraction. A "Shrine of the mine gods" (山神社) is visible inside the galleries. The Toi Gold Museum (土肥黄金館) built nearby, describes the history of the mine and gold mining in Japan. The museum received some fame for housing the world's largest
gold bar A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varieties of gold ...
, weighing 250 kg,Japan Times 17 January 2005
/ref> and representing a value of about $14.5 million in September 2022. The bar obtained an official Guinness record certificate for "The largest manufactured pure gold bar":Guinness World Records certificate at Toi Mine Museum


Notes

{{reflist Economic history of Japan Gold mines in Japan Silver mines in Japan Former mines in Japan Izu, Shizuoka Edo-period sites