Qualla: Kurokawa Gold Mine https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/e/kurokawa-gold-mine-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kurokawa Gold Mine https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine Kurokawa Gold Mine: Introduction https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine/ Photo credit さかおり (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Somewhere on the slopes of Mount Keikan, at an elevation between 1,350 and 1,400 meters, more than thirty mineshaft openings still pierce the mountainside. Gold dust had been panned from the streams here since at least the Kamakura period, but it was Takeda Shingen -- the warlord who unified Kai Province in the mid-16th century -- who turned these scattered diggings into an industrial operation. The gold that flowed from Kurokawa funded armies, built temples, and minted the Koshu kin, gold coins so pure they became the standard of value across warring Japan. Today the shafts are empty, the smelters are ruins, and the mining town has vanished into forest. But the mountain still holds its secrets.

Read more: Kurokawa Gold Mine on Qualla

Image: さかおり (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/e/kurokawa-gold-mine-wp/xn6e-kurokawa-gold-mine-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kurokawa Gold Mine: The Warlord's Treasury https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine/ Photo credit さかおり (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Kai Province -- the mountainous homeland of the Takeda clan in what is now Yamanashi Prefecture -- was rich in mineral deposits but poor in arable land. When Takeda Shingen seized power from his father and unified the province, he recognized that gold was his greatest strategic a...

Read more: Kurokawa Gold Mine on Qualla

Image: さかおり (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/e/kurokawa-gold-mine-wp/xn6e-kurokawa-gold-mine-the-warlords-treasury.mp3 0:06 2 full Kurokawa Gold Mine: Panning, Tunneling, Digging https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine/ Photo credit さかおり (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Gold extraction at Kurokawa used every technique available to medieval Japanese miners. Workers panned gold dust from mountain streams, the simplest and oldest method, which had been practiced here since at least the early Kamakura period. As Shingen's engineers pushed deeper, th...

Read more: Kurokawa Gold Mine on Qualla

Image: さかおり (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/e/kurokawa-gold-mine-wp/xn6e-kurokawa-gold-mine-panning-tunneling-digging.mp3 0:06 3 full Kurokawa Gold Mine: From Takeda to Tokugawa https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine/ Photo credit さかおり (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. After the Takeda clan fell, Kai Province passed to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the mines continued to operate under the Tokugawa shogunate's direct control through the Edo period. The gold of Kurokawa no longer financed independent warlords; it flowed instead into the coffers of a unifi...

Read more: Kurokawa Gold Mine on Qualla

Image: さかおり (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/e/kurokawa-gold-mine-wp/xn6e-kurokawa-gold-mine-from-takeda-to-tokugawa.mp3 0:06 4 full Kurokawa Gold Mine: Ghost Mines in the Mountains https://qualla.com/kurokawa-gold-mine/ Photo credit さかおり (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1906, entrepreneurs attempted to reopen the Kurokawa mine, hoping that modern techniques might succeed where Edo-period miners had given up. The venture lasted just two years before it, too, was abandoned. The mountain had yielded what it intended to give. In 1997, the Kurokaw...

Read more: Kurokawa Gold Mine on Qualla

Image: さかおり (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/6/e/kurokawa-gold-mine-wp/xn6e-kurokawa-gold-mine-ghost-mines-in-the-mountains.mp3 0:06 5 full