Yamagano mines

• Japanese: 山ヶ野金山 (Yamagano kinzan)

The Yamagano gold mines were a series of gold mines located in what is today Kirishima City, Kagoshima prefecture. They were controlled in the Edo period by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma han, and continued to be controlled by that family into the Meiji period.

By 1907, new mining technologies relied upon electricity, and so the Shimazu had a power station built in the Hayato-chô area of Kirishima; this was known as the Suitenbuchi power station.

By 1983, the old power station building came to be controlled by the Kyuhu Electric Power company; in that year, a portion of the old building was used to construct a monument to the station, erected at Sengan'en, the former private gardens of the Shimazu lords.

References

• Plaques on-site.[1]