Ono Village in Sotome and Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ono Village in Sotome

   For more than two centuries Christianity was banned in Japan, and in the villages along the Sotome coast north of Nagasaki, communities practised their faith in secret, disguising prayers as Buddhist chants and hiding images of the Virgin as the bodhisattva Kannon. These were the Hidden Christians, the Kakure Kirishitan, and their villages, including Ono, are part of the World Heritage listing of Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region, inscribed in 2018. At Ono the small Ono church, built by the French missionary Marc Marie de Rotz in the late nineteenth century after the ban was lifted, has thick walls built in a local technique of stones bound with mortar, known as de Rotz walls.

   Read the complete Ono Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ono Village in Sotome is where the day begins. Next is Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte.

2. 2. Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte

   Nagasaki's harbour is a long, narrow inlet surrounded by steep hills, and on its western shore the Mitsubishi shipyard has been building ships since the late nineteenth century. The yard was one of the engines of Japan's rapid industrialisation in the Meiji era, when the country transformed itself from a feudal society into an industrial power in a few decades. Several of its historic structures are part of the UNESCO listing of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, inscribed in 2015. The Former Pattern Shop, a red-brick building from 1898 where wooden patterns were made for casting metal parts, now houses a museum of the yard's history. The Giant Cantilever Crane, installed in 1909 and made in Scotland, is still in working order, and it dominates the waterfront. The yard built many famous ships, including the battleship Musashi, one of the largest warships ever constructed.

   Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine.

3. 3. Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine

   Out in the sea off Nagasaki, a low island called Takashima was the place where modern Japan dug its first Western-style coal shaft. In 1868, in the very year of the Meiji Restoration, the Scottish merchant Thomas Glover went into partnership with the Saga domain to sink a shaft here using steam-powered machinery from Britain. The mine later passed to Mitsubishi and became one of the pillars of the company's rise, fuelling steamships, factories and the rapid industrialisation of the country. Takashima is now part of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, listed by UNESCO in 2015.

   Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine. Next is back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte.

4. 4. back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte, late in the day. Next is Ono Village in Sotome.

5. 5. Ono Village in Sotome

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ono Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Ono Village in Sotome. That is the ride.