East Ehime · NiihamaNo.625★★Open in map →
Besshi Copper Mine Tonaru Zone
The remains of a mining headquarters set on a mountain shelf above Niihama, where brick ore bins and a ropeway footing stand in the forest. One narrow road reaches the site, and that road is closed every winter.
- FromMinetopia Besshi (Setouchi Bus, Minetopia Line)
- ~2 hr round tripGuided bus from Minetopia Besshi
- Besshi Copper Mine Tonaru Zone
The sweet spot
Tonaru is well known within Ehime and it is properly signposted, so this is not an undiscovered ruin. What thins the crowd is the road. A single narrow municipal route serves the site, large vehicles cannot use it, and it is shut from December to the end of February. Anyone who arrives outside the season, or in the wrong vehicle, simply does not get up there.
Where it is
29 more notes in Ehime · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Tonaru History Museuma timber building on the upper terrace, showing the life of the mining town in dioramas and photographs
- Mine Kobo workshopthe mine's former safety office, converted into a workshop that visitors can enter
- The ore bins and ropeway stationthe main ruin, where brick bins are built into the hillside below the stone footing of the aerial ropeway
- Kabokuen gardenflowering trees planted on the levelled terraces above the ruins
How to actually get there
- Niihama Station → Minetopia Besshi (Setouchi Bus, Minetopia Line).
- Minetopia Besshi → Tonaru (guided bus, departures at 11:00 and 13:00, about two hours round trip).
- Walk from the museum past the Mine Kobo workshop down to the ore bins and the ropeway footing.
- Return on the same bus to Minetopia Besshi.
- Guided bus from Minetopia Besshi
- The road-station complex Minetopia Besshi runs a guided bus up to Tonaru and back, taking about two hours in total including the time on site. It is a paid, bookable service, so reserve online or by phone rather than turning up. Minetopia Besshi itself is reached from Niihama Station on the Setouchi Bus Minetopia Line.
- Return to Minetopia Besshi
- The tour returns you to the Minetopia Besshi car park where it started. The later departure leaves at 13:00, so if you are connecting onward to Niihama Station, work back from an afternoon return rather than assuming an evening one.
About the place
Tonaru is a shelf of ground about 750 metres up in the Akaishi mountains, above the city of Niihama. For a stretch of the early twentieth century it was the operating centre of the Besshi copper mine, and a town grew on the shelf to serve it. When the shaft was shut the town emptied and the forest took the ground back. What remains is masonry: brick ore bins built into the hillside, the stone footing where the aerial ropeway once loaded, retaining walls holding level ground that no longer carries anything. Moss and maples have grown over most of it.
How to enjoy it
The museum opens at 10:00 and closes at 17:00, and it shuts on Mondays, moving to the following day when a public holiday falls on one. The guided bus leaves Minetopia Besshi at 11:00 and 13:00, so take the later run if you want the ruins in afternoon light. From December through the end of February the road, the bus and the museum are all closed together.
Background & history
The mine's operating centre moved up and down this mountain as the workings shifted. In 1916 the headquarters was transferred to Tonaru, and for the next fourteen years the shelf was the administrative heart of the Besshi mine. In 1930 the centre moved down to Hadeba, where Minetopia Besshi stands today. The Tonaru shaft was suspended in 1968 and the site was left to the forest. Later preservation work reopened it to visitors, with a history museum and a workshop set into the former safety office.
Before you go
- Cash
- The history museum is free to enter. The guided bus is a paid service and the operator sets the fare, so confirm the current price when you book. Carry cash for the local bus up to Minetopia Besshi.
- Before you go
- The whole Tonaru area is closed from December to the end of February. Municipal road Kawamata-Tonaru is narrow, with sections where two vehicles cannot pass, and anything over 2.8 m tall, 2.1 m wide or 7.1 m long cannot get through. The road also closes when a heavy-rain warning is issued for Niihama, and the bus tour may be cancelled under any weather warning.
- Another way
- You can drive up yourself on municipal road Kawamata-Tonaru between March and November, but only in a small vehicle, and traffic control is applied on the narrow sections on busy weekends and holidays.
- After you get off
- The tour starts and ends in the car park at Minetopia Besshi in the Hadeba zone. The Setouchi Bus stop of the same name is at the same complex.