Townscape Area

1.Omori: Kigami Shrine

Kigami Shrine can be considered the spiritual anchor of Omori. Located at the eastern end of the settlement only a few steps from the old magistrate’s office, the shrine was established in its current location in 1577, when the ruling Mohri family had it built to protect the town and its residents from misfortune. The sanctuary, along with much of the rest of Omori, was destroyed in a great fire in 1800 and then rebuilt 12 years later. The current buildings date back to this reconstruction and include an imposing two-story worship hall (haiden) with a distinctive hip-and-gable roof. Part of the hall is decorated with the family emblems of samurai who made donations to the shrine, but the most impressive feature of its interior is arguably the nakiryu (“roaring dragon”). This ceiling mural from 1818 represents a dragon in flight and, thanks to some ingenious acoustics, “roars” if you clap your hands while standing directly underneath it.

2.Magistrate’s Office (Daikansho)

In the Edo period (1603–1867), Iwami Ginzan was under the direct administration of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, the central government. The shogunate’s representative, or magistrate, supervised the silver mine and the surrounding area from his fortified office, around which the town of Omori developed. The magistrate was responsible for tax collection, law and order, and the management of the mine. To carry out these tasks, the magistrate’s office hired a number of local officials, many of whom were experts in specific fields such as tax calculation or silver mining.

Today, the site of the Iwami Ginzan magistrate’s office is composed of a gate structure built in 1815 and a main building erected in 1902.

The main building now houses a museum that focuses on the history of mining at Iwami Ginzan from medieval times to the closing of the mine in 1923. The exhibits include a wide range of mining equipment from over the years and feature descriptions of how miners and their families lived, how local officials went about their business, and even how new magistrates and other functionaries assigned to Iwami Ginzan from elsewhere in Japan would use manual-like picture scrolls to study before taking up their duties.

3.Shogenji Temple

Shogenji is a Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhist temple that stands at the foot of a hill about 100 meters west of where the Omori magistrate’s office used to be. This location is indicative of the close relationship the temple enjoyed with the local administration of Iwami Ginzan during the Edo period (1603–1867).

It was founded in the early years of the 1600s, around the time when the Tokugawa shogunate, or central government, assumed control over the silver mine. After the shogunate assigned a magistrate to administer the mine, the town of Omori developed around the magistrate’s office, with merchants and samurai moving in to satisfy the office’s demand for goods and services. Over the years, many of the magistrates chose to worship at Shogenji, and six of them were buried on its grounds—along with numerous members of Omori’s wealthiest merchant families, who owed much of their prosperity to the magistrate’s office.

The temple is entered through an imposing 10-meter-high gate, built in 1772 and decorated with elaborate carvings by a local artisan. These include a pair of guardian lions (shishi), dragons, and on the back the twin heads of elephants. Just past the gate on the right, covered by a stone roof, stands the tombstone of Takemura Michikiyo (1561–1635), the second magistrate of Iwami Ginzan. The temple’s main hall dates to 1867 and houses a statue of the Amida Buddha under a colorfully decorated ceiling. Further up the hill behind the main hall is a Toshogu shrine—another indication of Shogenji’s ties to the magistrate’s office and, by extension, to the Tokugawa government. This sanctuary enshrines Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), the founder of the shogunate, as a Shinto deity and also includes monuments to 11 of his successors.

4.Oka House

The Oka House is a well-preserved samurai residence that during the Edo period (1603–1867) was occupied by a mid-ranking official serving under the Omori magistrate, the central government’s representative overseeing the silver mine. The heads of the Sawai and Shikano families that lived in the house successively held the post of overseer for storage of the silver mined and refined at Iwami Ginzan before its shipment to the government’s coffers in Edo (present-day Tokyo). The heavy responsibility for this task was well compensated, allowing for the building of a spacious residence not far from the magistrate’s office, though some way off the Omori main street. The house, named after its owner when it was designated a historic site in 1974, consists of a main building with a front garden and two entrances (the larger of which was opened only for important guests), a small detached structure housing the bathing facilities, a fire-resistant storehouse, and a shed. The Oka House is not open to visitors.

5.Omori: Kumagai House

For centuries, the Kumagai family was the richest and most influential in Omori. They began expanding their authority in the early 1600s, after the silver mine and the lands surrounding it were seized by the Tokugawa shogunate, which was to rule Japan until 1867. The family made its fortune in mining but later diversified to include financial and contracting services for the magistrate’s office, which represented the central government in the region. At least since 1718, the official title of kakeya was always held by a member of the Kumagai family. The kakeya was the official tasked with weighing silver to determine its purity and collecting payments from miners whose product was found lacking in quality. This function was a crucial part of the government’s taxation activities, so the Kumagai family were well compensated for performing it.

The head of the family also sat on the local council of elders, which oversaw the Omori area and functioned as an intermediary between the magistrate and local residents. This council often met in the Kumagai House, a two-story mansion rebuilt in 1801 after a fire destroyed much of the town the year before. Used as a residence until the end of the twentieth century and then restored to resemble its appearance in 1868, when the final annex buildings were completed, the Kumagai House gives visitors a sense of how an affluent merchant family lived when Iwami Ginzan was at the height of its prosperity. Most of its rooms, including the ornate chambers for receiving important guests, are open to visitors.

6.Aoyama House

Tagiya, one of the six goyado inns, operated in what is now the Aoyama House. Built in the mid-1800s, both the two-story structure and its storehouse maintain their original appearance, with white plastered walls and gray roof tiles; the simple details of its woodwork are noteworthy. The goyado inns were part of the society of the Edo period (1603–1867) when the Iwami Ginzan silver mine was under the direct control of the central government in Edo (present-day Tokyo), which assigned a magistrate to supervise the mine. In addition to the mine itself, the magistrate administered the lands around it, which encompassed some 150 villages. People from these villages often had to travel to the town of Omori to conduct official business at the magistrate’s office. In the mid-1700s, this led the government to establish the goyado system, under which the villages were organized into six groups. Each group was assigned an inn in which people from those villages had to stay when visiting Omori. The magistrate contracted rich merchant families in Omori to provide these inns, which also served the purpose of relaying new laws and orders from the magistrate’s office to the villages. The Aoyama House remains a private residence but is opened to visitors on some occasions.

7.Saishoji Temple

Saishoji is a medieval Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) Buddhist sanctuary located just west of central Omori. The oldest building on its grounds is the sizable main hall, the inner part of which dates to 1739, but Saishoji is more famous for its distinctive sutra repository. Storing the temple’s sacred texts, this structure is decorated with kote-e, or plaster relief pictures, an art form that flourished in the Iwami region from the Meiji era (1868–1912) to the late 1930s, in the years before World War II. Kote-e were often used to decorate both temple buildings and the homes and storehouses of rich merchants. They usually featured auspicious imagery such as dragons, which were believed to drive away fire and evil spirits, and rabbits, which symbolized fertility and success in business. The popularity of Iwami plasterwork reached as far as Tokyo and Osaka, and artisans from the region were hired to decorate structures such as the National Diet Building and the residence of the crown prince.

The kote-e at Saishoji are the work of Matsuura Eikichi (1858–1927), considered one of the greatest masters of plaster art. Created after the artist turned 60 in 1918, the images include the mythological bird sometimes referred to as the Chinese phoenix (ho-o; Chinese: fenghuang); peonies, considered the “king of flowers” in Chinese mythology; and chrysanthemums, after the flower that adorns the imperial family crest and is a symbol of the state, depicted on everything from the Japanese passport to the 50-yen coin.

Matsuura was a native of Nima, a town on the Sea of Japan coast near Iwami Ginzan. His illustrious career included assignments in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and several cities in Korea, which was a Japanese colony at the time. His grave is in the Saishoji cemetery.

8.Kanzeonji Temple

Kanzeonji Temple is an Omori landmark, having watched over the town from its central hilltop location for centuries. The history of this Shingon Buddhist sanctuary goes back to medieval times, but the date the temple was founded is unknown, as Kanzeonji’s buildings and records were lost in a fire in 1800 that destroyed most of the town. The temple was one of the three religious sites visited by the Omori magistrate—the central government’s representative at Iwami Ginzan during the Edo period (1603–1867)—every New Year to pray for the prosperity of the silver mine. This indicates that Kanzeonji enjoyed the favor and protection of the magistrate’s office. Rebuilding the temple after the fire of 1800 took time, however: the current main hall dates to the latter half of the 1800s, and Kanzeonji’s distinctive red gate was erected on its present site only in 1878, when it was relocated from the nearby Seisuiji, another prestigious temple. The gate is flanked by a pair of stone warrior statues that were added in 1980.

At the bottom of the staircase that leads up the hill to the gate is a covered stone slab dedicated to Yakushi, the buddha of medicine and healing. This stone is believed to have the power to heal eye ailments. Higher up the hill behind the slab stand many small Buddhist statues, placed there to watch over passersby on the street.

9.Omori Ginzan Historic District

The town of Omori has functioned as the administrative and commercial hub of Iwami Ginzan since the early 1600s. This was when the Tokugawa clan, which by 1603 had vanquished most of its rival warlords and founded the shogunate that was to rule Japan until 1867, established an office for its magistrate in charge of local affairs at the foot of the mountain. A town sprang up around the magistrate’s office, with merchants and samurai moving in to satisfy the office’s demand for goods and services. This created further employment opportunities, and the town’s population continued to increase.

Diverse Townscape

Omori’s relatively small area and sudden development resulted in a peculiarly mixed urban structure, with the houses of samurai, tradespeople, and commoners, along with shrines and temples, intermingling in close proximity.

This was a rarity in feudal Japan, where the social classes usually lived in separate neighborhoods. Although most of the town was destroyed in a fire in 1800, this patchwork distribution of land remains the distinguishing feature of Omori. Walking through the town, you will see that the former samurai residences have gardens between the houses and the street, whereas most shops and multiple-unit dwellings front on the thoroughfare. In the Edo period (1603–1867), gardens were a sign of status, but they could also be used for practical purposes: some of the samurai households built small structures in the gardens and rented them to bring in additional income.

Red Tiles and Plum Trees

Omori is also known for the red tiles used on many of the town’s roofs. Made from the iron-rich clay found in the area, these sekishu-kawara (“Sekishu tiles”; Sekishu is another name for the Iwami area) are common throughout the Chugoku region, where Shimane Prefecture is located. Looking out over the town from above, you will notice that many of the larger buildings have gray roofs. Such structures tend to be traditional samurai residences or administrative facilities; gray tiles were favored by the warrior class as a symbol of authority.

Another visual feature of the town is its ume plum trees, many of which were planted when the silver mine was still active. Miners believed that the citric acid in pickled plums would help them stay alert in the dusty shafts, so they would stick these fruit inside their masks when they entered the mines.

Visiting Omori Today

Although the town of Omori has been designated a historic district and is protected from development, some of the old buildings have been put to innovative uses. A good example is Gungendo, a shop, cafe, and gallery housed in a renovated Edo-period farmhouse, where you can purchase clothing and local food, view artwork, and sit down for lunch or a snack while gazing at the garden.

Omori is a historic town that is happy to welcome visitors as long as its residents’ privacy and way of life are respected. Please refrain from entering homes or taking pictures of the residents without permission.

10.Former Omori Courthouse

The town of Omori grew into the administrative and commercial hub of Iwami Ginzan from the early 1600s onward. It developed around the magistrate’s office, from which the magistrate—the representative of the Tokugawa shogunate (central government) in Edo (present-day Tokyo)—supervised the silver mine and the surrounding area. The Tokugawa regime came to an end in 1867, when revolutionary forces loyal to the emperor overthrew the government and installed Emperor Meiji (1852–1912) as the head of state. The defeat of the Tokugawa brought great change to Omori, which under the new order lost its special status and became a regional administrative center like any other. The town came to host a police station, tax and post offices, and in 1890—the year in which constitutional government was established in Japan—a courthouse.

Inspired by Western architectural designs introduced to Japan in the late nineteenth century, the Omori courthouse was completed in 1888. It held jurisdiction over the town and 49 nearby villages, operating until the end of World War II. The building then became a community center until the late 1980s, when the value of the historic Omori townscape began to be recognized and the former courthouse was converted into a museum to showcase the preservation effort. Its displays include scale models of restored houses in Omori and documents describing the restoration process, while a reconstructed Meiji-era (1868–1912) courtroom complete with mannequins reminds visitors of the building’s past. The character sitting in the center behind the bench is the judge, flanked by a scrivener. The empty seat on the judge’s right is for the prosecutor, and at the empty desk below would sit the defendant and defense attorney. This arrangement, in which the judge and prosecutor sit next to each other as virtual equals, looking down at the defendant, was the norm at trials in Japan until the end of World War II. The third mannequin in the room represents a court official.

11.Omori: Kawashima House

Counted among the most prosperous samurai families in Omori during the Edo period (1603–1867), the Kawashima family included high-ranking officials charged with the supervision of miners at Iwami Ginzan. Hired by the local magistrate, who represented the central government in this region, the family held this post from 1610 until the end of feudal rule in 1867. Their influence and wealth are reflected in their large estate, built soon after a fire destroyed most of the town in 1800. Storehouses and supplementary wings were added until 1825, when the house assumed its current appearance.

Now open to the public, the residence is decorated with art, tableware, utensils, and other items to illustrate how the family lived some two centuries ago. Facing the front of the house, you will notice two entrances: the smaller one on the left was for residents, while the large doors on the right, which lead up to two tatami-mat rooms facing a small garden, were only opened for important guests such as the magistrate, other officials, and local elders. Sitting on the veranda that opens onto the garden, you can imagine some of the serious conversations that once took place here.

12.Yanagihara House

The Yanagihara House is among the most modest samurai residences in the town of Omori. A relatively small single-story structure, it was built after 1800, when a fire destroyed much of the town. It was the home of a doshin, a low-ranking official roughly equivalent to a modern-day police inspector, who was hired to oversee the checkpoints that regulated the flow of people and goods into and out of the central mining area. The guards at these checkpoints were tasked with ensuring that taxes were paid on goods entering the silver mine, that silver destined for the government’s coffers was not smuggled out, and that only people authorized to work and/or live in the mining zone entered it. The doshin served as the point of contact between the checkpoints and the Omori magistrate’s office, where the government-appointed supervisor of the silver mine was based.

Though not particularly well paid, the doshin was still considered “middle class” in the Iwami Ginzan community, which centered on the magistrate’s office. This is reflected in the Yanagihara House: though simple, it incorporated many of the signs of status valued by the warrior class. Among these were an imposing gate and walls, which have unfortunately been lost, and a spacious garden, which originally included a structure for rental accommodation to bring in additional income but now extends from the house all the way to the fence. Next to the main building is a small fire-resistant storehouse—another requisite for any self-respecting samurai. The Yanagihara House is not open to visitors.

13.Miyake House

In the Edo period (1603–1867), the Miyake House was the home of the Tanabe samurai family, which held a number of key administrative posts at Iwami Ginzan beginning in 1601. In that year, Tanabe Hikoemon was hired by Okubo Nagayasu (1545–1613), the first government-appointed magistrate overseeing the silver mine, to work for the magistrate’s office as a mine official. Hikoemon was part of the first cohort of expert officials hired to manage the mine after it was taken over by the Tokugawa clan, which in 1603 established a samurai-led government that was to rule Japan until 1867. Like many of his new colleagues, Hikoemon was not from Iwami—he had been based in the province of Kai (present-day Yamanashi Prefecture)—but his family settled in the area and became specialists in mine management. The Tanabe eventually came to administer the seals with which Iwami silver was stamped before it was sent to the government in Edo (present-day Tokyo), a position of considerable prestige.

The Tanabe family home burned down in a fire that destroyed much of Omori in 1800, but was soon rebuilt. This structure survives as the Miyake House, named after its owner when the house was designated a historic site in 1974. The building has been extensively renovated but retains many characteristics of an early-1800s samurai residence, including a garden between the house and the street, an imposing fence around the garden, and end-cap roof tiles decorated with the mitsudomoe symbol, a swirling pattern made up of three comma-like shapes that signifies water and was believed to offer protection against fires. The Miyake House is not presently open to visitors.

14.Abe House

The Abe House is one of the largest samurai residences in Omori and among the very few to survive the fire that destroyed much of the town in 1800. It was built in 1789 for the wealthy and influential Abe family, which had been closely involved with the management of the silver mine since 1601. In that year, Okubo Nagayasu (1545–1613), the first government-appointed magistrate to supervise the mine, invited Abe Seibei from the province of Kai (present-day Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo) to join his team of bureaucrats who administered Iwami Ginzan from the Omori magistrate’s office. Seibei’s descendants continued to serve in official positions, handling tasks from accounting to the management of the Shinkiri mine tunnel, dug in the 1720s to solve the problem of groundwater flooding existing tunnels and shafts.

The Abe House has all the typical features of a home fit for a high-ranking samurai official, including a front garden, gray roof tiles (favored by the warrior class as a symbol of authority), and two entrances. The smaller entrance on the left was for residents, while the large doors on the right, which lead up to three tatami-mat rooms, were opened only for important guests. The original gate, along with a structure that stood behind it that was rented out for additional income, was removed in 1950. The Abe House is now used as a hotel, operated by the Gungendo shop, cafe, and gallery that is housed in a renovated Edo-period (1603–1867) farmhouse nearby.

15.Eisenji Temple

Eisenji, a temple of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, overlooks central Omori from its hillside site just west of the town’s main street. Eisenji was founded in 1596 and figures in a well-known local legend about how Iwami Ginzan was saved from disaster in 1732. In that year, a pest devastated crops throughout western Japan, causing widespread famine. The magistrate Ido Heizaemon (1672–1733), who represented the Tokugawa shogunate (central government) at the silver mine, decided to use the rice reserves at his disposal to feed the people without waiting for permission from his superiors. He also waived the tax payments from the local villages, which were to be made in rice. But his greatest achievement was to introduce an alternative crop. A traveling priest introduced Ido to sweet potatoes, which the magistrate then had planted throughout the lands under his control. According to the story, Ido’s policies meant that not a single person starved to death at Iwami Ginzan, and his leadership was praised far and wide. Eisenji, where the priest is said to have told Ido about sweet potatoes, burned down in 1800 in a fire that destroyed most of Omori. Its main hall was rebuilt seven years later, and a massive gate was added in 1853. This structure caused some controversy at the magistrate’s office, which thought it too similar to the gate at the mausoleum of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604–1651) in Nikko. Eisenji was ordered to tear down the gate, but the lack of a resident priest meant that the order could not be executed immediately. The gate eventually outlived the Tokugawa shogunate, which was overthrown in 1867, and stands over the entrance of the temple today.

16.Muneoka House

Members of the Muneoka samurai family played many important roles at Iwami Ginzan throughout the silver mine’s history. The family’s most renowned representative was Yaemon, a native of Iwami and an expert on mining matters. He served under the warlord Mohri Terumoto (1553–1625) until the Mohri family lost control of the silver mine to the Tokugawa clan, which in 1603 unified Japan and established a government that was to rule the country until 1867. The first Tokugawa-appointed magistrate overseeing the mine, Okubo Nagayasu (1545–1613), hired Yaemon and assigned him to several of the realm’s most plentiful sources of precious metals. Among these were the gold and silver mines on Sado Island (off the coast of present-day Niigata Prefecture), where Yaemon—by that time known by the honorary name Muneoka Sado—died in 1613.

Yaemon’s descendants continued his work at Iwami Ginzan, performing mainly tax collection and administrative duties for the magistrate’s office until the family lost its position in a disagreement of some sort in 1790. The Muneoka returned to Iwami Ginzan in 1823, when the head of the family was hired as a doshin—a low-ranking official roughly equivalent to a modern-day police inspector. Soon after, they were provided a home by their distant relatives, the Abe family. That building, constructed in the 1830s, is the current Muneoka House, a stately samurai residence fronted by a garden and accompanied by a storehouse and a detached cottage previously used as a teahouse. The walls and gate have been lost, but the shed in the back has been reconstructed according to the original blueprints. The Muneoka House is not open to visitors but can be rented for overnight stays.

17.Kanamori House

During the Edo period (1603–1867), the Iwami Ginzan silver mine was under the direct control of the central government in Edo (present-day Tokyo), which assigned a magistrate to supervise the mine. In addition to the mine itself, the magistrate administered the lands around it, which encompassed some 150 villages. People from these villages often had to travel to the town of Omori to conduct official business at the magistrate’s office. In the mid-1700s, this led the government to establish the goyado system, under which the villages were organized into six groups. Each group was assigned an inn in which people from those villages had to stay when visiting Omori. The magistrate contracted rich merchant families in Omori to provide these inns, which also served the purpose of relaying new laws and orders from the magistrate’s office to the villages. One of the six goyado inns operated in what is now the Kanamori House, built around 1850. The building is distinguished by its roomy second floor, which could accommodate dozens of guests and even included a small tea room. The space was well needed, because the house was also used as an inn for people visiting Omori to borrow money from the magistrate’s office, as well as a sake brewery. The Kanamori House is not open to visitors.

18.Omori: Rakanji Temple and the 500 Rakan

Rakanji Temple, built to honor those who lost their lives in the mines of Iwami Ginzan, was founded in the belief that praying to the rakan (Sanskrit: arhat) would help the families of the deceased to find peace. In Buddhism, arhats are those who have attained nirvana, or spiritual enlightenment.

Construction on the temple began in 1741 under the patronage of Tayasu Munetake (1716–1771), the central government’s representative at Iwami Ginzan, who was the second son of the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684–1751). It took 25 years and vast funding to complete, but the result is impressive: three caves dug into the mountainside, filled with more than five hundred stone statues of the rakan, each with an individual posture and facial expression. Local people would search for a statue that resembled their deceased family member. The backs of these statues were marked with the names of the donors, who ranged from local believers to Tayasu’s family members and ladies of the shogun’s household in Edo (present-day Tokyo).

Today, visitors can cross the arched stone bridges that date back to the temple’s founding and enter two of the caves, which house 250 statues each. While Rakanji Temple is also known as the “500 Rakan,” this was never meant as an exact figure. The actual number of statues used to be significantly higher, but the centuries have taken their toll, leaving us with the current 500 rakan.

19.Watanabe House

The Watanabe House is the only remaining samurai residence within the Ginzancho settlement, which during the Edo period (1603–1867) was inside the silver mine’s fenced-off central zone. Named after its then owner when it was designated a National Historic Site in 2002, the house was built in 1811 for the Sakamoto family, who were mid-ranking officials charged with the management of the mine. Sakamoto Seizaemon, the first head of the family, was hired in 1604 by the magistrate’s office—the local representative of the central government, which exercised direct authority over Iwami Ginzan during the Edo period—and his position was inherited by his descendants, some of whom also operated mining tunnels of their own. Their estate features many of the typical characteristics of a samurai residence, including an imposing gate and fence, a garden between the house and the street, and two entrances: the smaller one on the left was for residents, while the large doors on the right, which lead up to two tatami-mat rooms, were opened only on special occasions and for important guests such as the magistrate and other officials of superior rank. Behind the main house is a two-story kura storehouse and a modern building. The Watanabe House is open to the public on some occasions.

20.Saihonji Temple

Saihonji Temple is closely associated with the Kumagai family, which for centuries was the richest and most influential in the town of Omori. They made their fortune in mining but also provided financial, contracting, and administrative services for the magistrate’s office, which represented the central government in the Iwami Ginzan region. The Kumagai began expanding their authority in the early 1600s, and a few decades later moved a Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) Buddhist sanctuary from the neighboring province of Izumo to this site, renaming the temple Saihonbo and later Saihonji. Its main hall, rebuilt in 1867, was the Kumagai family’s last major contribution to the temple, which is now better known for its wooden main gate. That structure dates to the first years of the 1600s, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in the region. It was originally located on the grounds of Ryushoji, another Buddhist temple that was one of the most influential religious sites at Iwami Ginzan throughout the Edo period (1603–1867). Ryushoji’s fortunes declined after the silver mine closed in 1923 and the region became less populated. The temple was abandoned in 1961 and its historically valuable gate was moved to Saihonji, where it stands as a quiet reminder of the mine’s former prosperity.

21.Seisuiji Temple

Seisuiji is a Shingon Buddhist temple that figures extensively in the history of Iwami Ginzan going back to the latter half of the sixteenth century. It was originally located on the side of Mt. Sennoyama, around which the silver mine was spread out, and attracted the reverence of warlords and commoners alike. It was at Seisuiji where Yasuhara Denbei, a prospector who discovered one of the most abundant silver veins at Iwami Ginzan, is said to have prayed before hitting the mother lode in 1602. The ornate jacket Yasuhara received from shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) as a reward for his contribution to the shogunate’s coffers was donated to Seisuiji. The jacket remains the property of the temple but is now in the keeping of the Kyoto National Museum.

Seisuji was moved to its current site in 1878, when an existing Buddhist structure on the premises was repurposed as the temple’s main hall. The hall houses a gilded statue of Juichimen Kannon, the eleven-headed bodhisattva of compassion, and its lattice ceiling is decorated with the family emblems of samurai and merchants who made donations to the temple. Seisuiji’s current main gate was added in 1931, when it was relocated from an obsolete temple that once administered Sahimeyama Shrine, the silver mine’s main Shinto sanctuary. The gate is guarded by a pair of stone statues: on the right is Fudo Myo-o, one of the Five Wisdom Kings, who is ever ready to unleash his anger on demons and other enemies of Buddhism, and on the left stands Bishamonten, chief among the Four Guardian Kings and a powerful guardian deity.

21.Tie-dyed Dofuku Jacket with Clove Pattern

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, decorative jackets like the one displayed here were often presented by wealthy and influential lords to subordinates as a sign of gratitude for their service. This dofuku jacket is made of yellow silk lined with cotton, and decorated with three tie-dyed horizontal lines of red with sawtooth edges. Within the red lines, four-petal rhombic flower patterns in hexagons alternate with bellflower patterns in circles, both yellowish-green on a white background. The yellow sections are adorned with large clove patterns in hues of purple, white, and yellow. The dyeing technique used represented the pinnacle of artisanal skill at the time, and the ample use of silk and colored dyes suggests that the item was produced at significant expense.

The jacket was a gift from shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867, to a miner by the name of Yasuhara Denbei. In 1603, a mine tunnel operated by Yasuhara at Iwami Ginzan produced a remarkable 13.5 tons of silver for the shogunate—a contribution so great that the miner was granted an audience with the shogun, who on that occasion presented him with the dofuku. The jacket therefore reminds us of the importance of the silver mine to the ruling regime, whose finances were directly dependent on the amount of precious metals produced by Iwami Ginzan and other mines throughout the realm. The dofuku displayed here is a reproduction; the original is designated an Important Cultural Property and held by the Kyoto National Museum.