Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi and Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi

   Water was the engine of Shuseikan, and the Sekiyoshi sluice gate is part of the story of how it was supplied. The factory complex that Shimazu Nariakira founded in the 1850s on the shore of Kagoshima Bay needed power for its machinery, and the answer was a canal that carried water from a river in the hills north of the city. The sluice gate controlling the flow still survives, a modest stone structure beside a stream, and it forms part of the World Heritage listing of Meiji industrial sites.

   Read the complete Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi is where the day begins. Next is Sakitsu Village in Amakusa.

2. 2. Sakitsu Village in Amakusa

   A small Gothic church with a spire stands right at the water's edge in Sakitsu, a fishing village tucked into an inlet on the southern coast of Amakusa's Shimoshima island. It looks almost Breton, a surprise in rural Kyushu, and the story behind it is one of the most moving in Japanese history. When Christianity was banned in the early seventeenth century, the people of Sakitsu kept their faith in secret for over two centuries, disguising prayers and objects as Buddhist or Shinto practice, and using things from their own fishing life, such as abalone shells whose inner patterns recalled holy images, as objects of devotion.

   Read the complete Sakitsu Village in Amakusa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Sakitsu Village in Amakusa comes up about 145 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 282 km into the recorded legs you reach Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine. Next is back through Sakitsu Village in Amakusa.

4. 4. back through Sakitsu Village in Amakusa

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sakitsu Village in Amakusa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Sakitsu Village in Amakusa, late in the day. Next is Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi.

5. 5. Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Shuseikan / Sekiyoshi Sluice gate of Yoshi. That is the ride.