Mine City

Meiji-era bricks still line the tunnel

Arakawa Horizontal Mine Ruins

Photo by Miné-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Naganobori Copper Mine Ruins

Analysis of a bronze lump showedthe Great Buddha's copper came from Naganobori.

A national Historic Site in Naganobori, Mitō. In 1988 a chemical analysis of a bronze lump excavated west of the Great Buddha Hall of Todaiji showed that the copper used at the Buddha's founding came from Naganobori. Excavated wooden tablets revealed a government copper-mining and smelting office of Nagato Province, active from the 8th to the 10th century.

National Historic Site (July 25, 2003)
Bronze lump chemical analysis: 1988
829 wooden tablets excavated (203 prefecturally designated)

02 ／ The Ebara Uvala and the Mori Festival (森祭り)

In a valley where rain flows into sinkholes,a mukunoki tree and a limestone pillar are revered.

Ebara is a settlement in an uvala (a valley formed by joined dolines) on the western Akiyoshidai plateau. There is no surface river; rain flows into sinkholes. In the Mori Festival (森祭り), the upper district reveres a snake and a mukunoki tree, the lower district a frog and a limestone pillar, as Morisama; a water shortage is thought to lie behind it. Natsumoshi (夏申し) and Akimoshi (秋申し) have been held.

Several sinkholes in the valley
Mori Festival: city-designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property (May 10, 2018)
Two rites a year: Natsumoshi and Akimoshi

03 ／ Akiyoshidai Yamayaki (Grassland Burning)

To keep the plateau from turning to woodland,fire is set in the season of dead grass.

In winter, when the grass has withered, the fire is set, and flame and smoke wrap about 1,138 ha of the plateau. It keeps the plateau from becoming woodland and preserves its grassland; the present form dates from about 100 years ago. In 2026 it was postponed by snow and held on February 14.

Flame and smoke wrap about 1,138 ha
Present form from about 100 years ago
2026: held on February 14

Living here

Akiyoshi-do opens at the southern foot of Akiyoshidai.

about 20,000 people

Mine lies near the middle of western Yamaguchi, a mountain city that includes Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park. The city's cultural-property page gives Akiyoshi-do a total length of about 8.8 km. The JR Mine Line has stopped running trains since the heavy rain of 2023; substitute buses stop at Mine Station and elsewhere.

People living here: 23,247people
Area: 472.64km²
Households: 9,405households
Rent (average for rentals): 30,170yen
Healthcare: 3 hospitals ／ 19 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Population from 2010 onward (municipal boundary changed).2008-03-21 に新設合併（美東町・秋芳町）。2010年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —11 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

Shape

Borders 6 municipalities.

Mine City in Japan34.167°N 131.206°E

Territory of Mine City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

28.3km

下関市, 長門市, 宇部市, 萩市, 山陽小野田市, 山口市

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Mine City isthis kind of town.

01The Arakawa Horizontal Mine Ruins in Ōmine, Mine, are a tunnel dug for anthracite of the Ōmine Coalfield, completed in 1905 (Meiji 38). It is an arched, brick-lined tunnel and a city-designated cultural property. Entry is possible only with a geo-guide.
02The Naganobori Copper Mine Ruins in Mitō are a national Historic Site; the city records that a chemical analysis of a bronze lump showed the copper of the Great Buddha's founding came from Naganobori. Ebara, a settlement in a valley on the western Akiyoshidai plateau, has held a Mori Festival worshipping a snake and a frog.
03Mine has Akiyoshidai and Akiyoshi-do; the city's cultural-property page gives Akiyoshi-do a total length of about 8.8 km. The city-run Akiyoshidai Museum of Natural History was founded in response to the 1957 issue of a US military air-bombing range on the plateau. In April 2026 the Mine Akiyoshidai Geopark was certified a UNESCO Global Geopark.

See the town as it is now.

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Mine City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗