Under the forest that covers Iwami Ginzan is one of the great silver mines of the world, and it is a kind of miracle that you can hardly see it. The silver was dug here from the 1520s to 1923, in narrow hand-cut tunnels, and the district grew into a complex of mine, refineries, a mining town, roads and harbours, all of which were listed by UNESCO in 2007 as a single cultural landscape. What the committee praised was the lightness of the touch. Unlike so many mining regions, this one was not ripped apart, and the forest simply grew back.
The silver rush began when a Hakata merchant brought refining specialists from Korea, and production boomed. By the early seventeenth century Japan was among the major silver producers in the world, and Iwami was its greatest mine. European mapmakers of the time labelled the region as silver mines. The Tokugawa shogunate took control in 1600, and the magistrate they sent, Okubo Nagayasu, put the district in order. The silver was carried down mountain roads to the coast and shipped away, and the mine's long decline ended in closure in 1923.
The valley is a delight for a quiet rider. The approach from the town of Oda, about eleven kilometres away, is a narrow, wooded road, with a few tight bends and little traffic. Cars are limited in the old town, so you park at the edge and walk, past mossy walls, wooden houses, temples and a stream. A short stretch of tunnel is open to visitors, and the Rakan-ji temple with its five hundred stone figures in the cliff caves is worth a visit.
Fuel is in Oda and the coastal towns, not in the valley. The journey continues toward Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, a long day across the Chugoku mountains and down to the Inland Sea, so start early and keep an eye on the clock. The best seasons are autumn, with red maples against dark cedar, and spring, with fresh leaves. In summer it is humid, and the Sea of Japan coast brings rain in any season.