鉱業博物館

Museum of Mineral Resources


Useful Information

Location: Akita Mining School.
(39.729167, 140.136549)
Open: 06-JAN to FEB Mon-Sat 9-16.
MAR to NOV daily 9-16.
DEC to 25-DEC Mon-Sat 9-16.
[2022]
Fee: Adults JPY 100, Children free.
[2022]
Classification: SubterraneaMining Museum
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours: self guided, D=1 h.
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: yes
Bibliography:
Address: Museum of Mineral Resources, 28-2 Osawa,Tegata Akita City, Akita, 010-8502 Japan, Tel: +81-18-889-2461, Fax: +81-18-889-2465. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

1910 Akita Mining School established.
1941 fire destroys most of the exhibits.
1949 Mining Museum founded by the Mining School of Akita University.
1951 collection room for the museum renovated and reopened as Mineral Industry Museum.
1961 50th Anniversary of the Faculty of Mining, new museum building inaugurated.
1994 exhibitions renewed to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Mining Museum.
1996 websites and Museum Database opened to the public.
1998 faculty renamed Faculty of Engineering and Resources.
2011 100th anniversary of the Akita Mining School, exhibitions renewed.
2016 faculty renamed Faculty of International Resources.

Description

鉱業博物館 (Museum of Mineral Resources) is an exhibition on the campus of the Akita University. The Japanese name is also translated Mineral Industry Museum and simply Mining Museum. It is located in a quite exceptional circular building which resembles a beehive.

Akita is rich in mineral and petroleum resources, traditionally this was the most prosperous mining area in Japan. A result is the Akita Mining School, which was founded in 1910 to train mining engineers. It later became the Faculty of Mining of Akita University. Of course the Akita Mining School collected rocks, minerals, and mining related objects, mostly as demonstration objects for the education of students. In 1941 most of this first collection was destroyed in a massive fire. Of course, it grew again afterwards, and in 1949 the many items were united into a new founded museum of mining. This made the collection accessible for everyone interested, not only students. When the university had its 50th anniversary a new building was erected for the collection, which had grown substantially. This is the extraordinary circular building where the collection is located until today.

The museum contains collections of minerals and ores of various colours and shapes, rare rocks and fossil. Main topics are the coal seams, the hydrothermal ore gangues, and the oil fields of the coastal plains. The exploration of resources and the mining technology are explained in an easy-to-understand manner. There are not only original tools and equipment, but also many models which explain many aspects of mining. Special exhibitions and lectures on the latest research at the university and the results of a wide range of academic fields are also open to the public. A quite unique exhibit is the online database, which was created by Professor Yuichi Narita of the Faculty of Mining. It contains digitized documents of all 13,000 items in the collection. Most are represented by a picture and a detailed description, and the location in the museum.