Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace

This firebrick reverberatory furnace was built at the suggestion of Egawa Tan’an, the governor of Nirayama, at the end of the Edo period to melt metal and cast cannons.

This reverberatory furnace is a symbol of Izu-no-kuni City and is the only existing reverberatory furnace that has been in operation, and it still retains most of its original form from the time of construction.

Construction was completed in 1857, and it consists of a total of four furnaces in two 15.6-meter-high rows of twin furnaces. As a reverberatory furnace directly operated by the Shogunate, cannons were cast here.

The attached machinery was handed over to the army in the Meiji period (1868-1912), so only the reverberatory furnace itself is extant.

In Japan, there are only two reverberatory furnaces of the early modern period in existence: the Niriyama Reverberatory Furnace and the Hagi Reverberatory Furnace in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The Niriyama Reverberatory Furnace and the Hagi Reverberatory Furnace in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, are the only reverberatory furnaces in the world where cast iron was actually melted.

The site is surrounded by nature, a pleasant green space, and the murmuring of the river is soothing.

In the adjacent tea garden, visitors can experience picking tea as a tea-picking girl.

The adjacent Kuraya Narusawa also offers a microbrewery restaurant, direct sales of Yabukita tea, and sales of souvenirs.

If you are sightseeing in Izu, be sure to visit the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace.

Reverberatory Furnace

A cannon casting facility built at the end of the Edo period, the inside of the furnace was arched with firebricks, and this curvature reflected heat and flames to melt iron.

Refractory bricks have the property of withstanding high temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace is a symbol of the birthplace of the modern steel industry, and is designated as a national historic site and listed on the World Heritage List as a “Heritage of the Industrial Revolution in Meiji Japan.

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace was started by Egawa Eiryu (Tangan), the governor of Nirayama at the end of the Edo period, and completed by his son, Hidetoshi, who succeeded him.

A reverberatory furnace is a melting furnace used to melt metals and cast cannons. The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace is the only existing reverberatory furnace in Japan that actually operated.

Inside this reverberatory furnace, there is a system for melting pig iron to produce high-quality iron. The melting of pig iron requires high temperatures, and the ceiling of the melting chamber inside the reverberatory furnace is a shallow dome.

This structure reflects flames and heat and concentrates them on the pig iron to achieve high temperatures. This mechanism is why it is called a reverberatory furnace.

The height of the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace is approximately 15.7 meters, and it is the only reverberatory furnace that actually remained in operation in Japan.

In the past, when the reverberatory furnace was in operation, many craftsmen worked in the huts and warehouses that were built around it.

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace was also started as part of a construction project ordered by Egawa Eiryu (Tangan), who was in charge of sea defense in Edo Bay when Japan faced a foreign threat at the end of the Edo period.

It was originally planned to be built near Shimoda Port, but due to the entry of Perry’s fleet, it was hastily relocated and built in Nakamura (present-day Naka, Izu-no-kuni City), near the Nirayama District Office. Thanks to Hidetoshi’s efforts, it was finally completed in 1857.

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace functioned as a reverberatory furnace directly managed by the Shogunate, and Western-style cannons such as the iron 18-pound cannon and bronze field guns were cast.

The reverberatory furnace remains almost exactly as it was when it was built, and is the only reverberatory furnace in the world where cast iron was actually melted.

History

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace was proposed by Egawa Eiryu, the governor of Nirayama, in 1840 as part of his naval defense policy in response to the crisis over the Opium War. He aimed to build a reverberatory furnace necessary for casting guns.

In 1853, following the arrival of the black ships, the decision was made to build a reverberatory furnace under the direct management of the Edo shogunate.

Construction began in Izu-Shimoda in 1853, and in 1854, the location was changed to Nakamura-Aza Narutaki, Tagata-gun, after sailors from the U.S. fleet of Matthew Perry invaded the site.

Therefore, it was called the Nakamura Reverberatory Furnace at the time of construction, but was renamed the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace after the Meiji period.

When Egawa Eiryu died in 1855, his son Egawa Hidetoshi took over the construction, which was completed in 1857.

Hidetoshi Egawa, in constructing the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, invited 11 engineers, including Magosaburo Tashiro and Yongsuke Sugitani, who were involved in the construction of the Tsukiji and Tabuse Reverberatory Furnaces in the Saga Clan, for technical cooperation in order to complete the North Furnace in 1857.

Casting at the reverberatory furnace was carried out from 1857 to 1864, after which it was moved from the Shogunate’s direct management to the Egawa family’s private management in 1868.

After that, the reverberatory furnace was weathered, but in 1908, the reverberatory furnace site was purchased by volunteers of Nirayama Village and donated to the Ministry of War, which placed it under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, and the furnace was re-constructed. Since then, the reverberatory furnace has been maintained and managed by the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace Conservation Association.

Features

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace is a reverberatory furnace with four furnaces in two stacks, and is characterized by the fact that it manufactured cannons on its own. The design of the reverberatory furnace was based on the Dutch book “Casting Methods at the Royal Iron and Cannon Foundry at Leuk” written by Ulrich Huguenin.

The outside of the furnace body is made of Izu stone (green tuff) and the inside is made of firebrick (fired with clay from Mt.

The chimney is also made of firebricks and is approximately 15.7 meters high. It is recorded that the surface of the chimney was originally finished with plaster.

The Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace produced both cast-iron and bronze cannons, but the specific details of their production have not been determined.

It is reported that four cast-iron 18-pounders were manufactured, two of which were test-fired. Several types of bronze cannons also appear to have been manufactured.

Nirayama Furukawa

At the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, water turbine power was used in the process of boring holes in the barrels of the guns. Therefore, the Furukawa River, which runs alongside the reverberatory furnace site, was modified to meander in order to supply water flow to the reverberatory furnace side. This modified section is part of the World Heritage Site and extends approximately 144 meters.

Over time, however, the streambed was lowered due to the flow opening, and the revetment was reinforced with stone walls. In addition, the intake portion of the river has been buried by drift stones from upstream and landslides on the riverbank.

The Furukawa River is designated as a first-class river, but its starting point is the confluence where the water drained from the waterwheel is returned to the river, and the renovated area (the World Heritage registration area) and the headwaters upstream are treated as an associate river. However, the River Law is applied as the basis for legal protection of the World Heritage Site.

Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace Guidance Center

This is an information facility adjacent to the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace where visitors can learn about the history of the reverberatory furnace and how it operated as a cannon factory in those days through a large-screen theater.

With the registration of Meiji Japan’s Industrial Heritage as a World Heritage Site, the establishment of a guidance facility for this heritage, including the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, was considered.

However, the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Industrial Revolutionary Heritage of Meiji Japan: Iron and Steel Making, Shipbuilding, and Coal Industry” is scattered across eight prefectures (Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Iwate, and Shizuoka), and the main components are located in Kyushu.

Therefore, Izu no Kuni City independently developed the Niriyama Reverberatory Furnace Guidance Center by the reverberatory furnace in 2016.

At the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace Guidance Center, visitors can learn how the reverberatory furnace worked and what it was like when it was in operation through photos, documents, and videos.

In the video hall, a large screen with three-dimensional images is installed to display realistic images of the cannon casting process at the time of the furnace’s operation.

In the exhibition room, firebricks and cannonballs are displayed along with mortars, bayonet fences, and other artifacts. In addition, the transition of the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace is introduced through old documents and photographs.

The Industrial Heritage Information Center will be established in 2020 in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where there are no World Heritage properties as a whole.