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The Shôkoshûseikan is a museum and archive in [[Kagoshima]] closely associated with the [[Shimazu clan]] and the history of [[Satsuma province]].

The Shôkoshûseikan is a museum and archive in [[Kagoshima]] closely associated with the [[Shimazu clan]] and the history of [[Satsuma province]].

The main hall (''honkan'') of the museum was originally built in [[1865]] in accordance with the dying wishes of former ''daimyô'' [[Shimazu Nariakira]] (d. [[1858]]) as one of a group of factories, originally called the Shûseikan. At its peak, the factory employed over two thousand workers.<ref>[[Luke Roberts]], ''Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa'', Cambridge University Press (1998), 202.</ref> The main hall is today designated an [[Important Cultural Property]]. The complex originally also included reverberating furnaces, blast furnaces, a smithy, a foundry, and a glass workshop; the remains of some of these structures are still visible today.

The main hall (''honkan'') of the museum was originally built in [[1865]] in accordance with the dying wishes of former ''daimyô'' [[Shimazu Nariakira]] (d. [[1858]]) as one of a group of factories, originally called the Shûseikan, and is today considered the oldest Western-style stone factory building in Japan.<ref name=plaques>Plaques on-site.</ref> The structure looks largely Western from the outside, but its interior architectural features incorporate much of traditional Japanese techniques, having been designed and constructed by Japanese builders based largely upon Western written and visual materials. At its peak, the factory employed over two thousand workers.<ref>[[Luke Roberts]], ''Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa'', Cambridge University Press (1998), 202.</ref> The complex originally also included reverberating furnaces, blast furnaces, a smithy, a foundry, and a glass workshop; much of the compound was destroyed in fires in the [[1877]] [[Satsuma Rebellion]], but the remains of some of these structures are still visible today.

The building was established as a museum in 1923; the [[Bakumatsu period]] industrial history of the area is a particular prominent theme of the museum, but its collections, roughly 10,000 items in total, also include many objects from the Shimazu family collections, as well as examples of traditional ceramics and objects related to the [[1863]] [[Anglo-Satsuma War]] (also known as the Bombardment of Kagoshima).

The main building was established as a museum in 1923, and as an [[Important Cultural Property]] in 1962. The [[Bakumatsu period]] industrial history of the area is a particularly prominent theme of the museum, but its collections, roughly 10,000 items in total, also include many objects from the Shimazu family collections, as well as examples of traditional ceramics and objects related to the [[1863]] [[Anglo-Satsuma War]] (also known as the Bombardment of Kagoshima). The second building, or annex, was built following archaeological excavations begun in 1987 which uncovered some of the remains of a foundry previously located on that site. The annex, built to resemble the foundry, houses small rotating exhibits of artifacts, as well as administrative offices.<ref name=plaques/>

The Shôkoshûseikan complex today also includes the Iso Palace and [[Sengan'en]] garden of the Shimazu clan, originally constructed in [[1658]] and used as a secondary villa for the Shimazu up until the Meiji period, when it became the primary Kagoshima residence of the family for a time.

The Shôkoshûseikan complex today also includes the Iso Palace and [[Sengan'en]] garden of the Shimazu clan, originally constructed in [[1658]] and used as a secondary villa for the Shimazu up until the Meiji period, when it became the primary Kagoshima residence of the family for a time.