PEOPLE
President of Kuraya Narusawa Co., Ltd.
Chairman of Izunokuni City Tourism Association
■Volunteers Show Visitors Around the Reverberatory Furnace and Tell Them About Tarozaemon Egawa’s Great Achievements
－How did your tourism business get on track and became successful after that?
Inamura: The turning point came during the high growth period after the war. First, we entered the tea industry in 1954 and started manufacturing and selling tea. Then, in October 1964, at the time of the former Tokyo Olympics, we opened the “Charcoal Grill Barbecue Narusawa,” which had private rooms that served food and drinks. Furthermore, we added tourist facilities such as a swimming pool and trout fishing, which allowed us to successfully attract tourists. It was just at the dawn of motorization, and I believe it was the beginning of the restaurant industry.
During this period, the town hall began to charge the entrance fee for the reverberatory furnace, however, our company—that had a shop in front of the gate—continued to provide volunteer guides to guide tourists. We continued to offer these guides free of charge until the site was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
－Who exactly did the work as the guide?
Inamura: Some of our employees and my grandfather used to show people around a lot. He used to talk passionately about how national defense ought to look like, and the hardships and great achievements of our predecessors, including Tarozaemon Egawa. My grandfather, who struggled in his youth, had a motto of “simplicity and frugality,” and when he became passionate while guiding tourists, he would often lecture them on such life lessons. This is an episode I heard from an elderly customer who also told me they have been here before. I still hear this kind of story from time to time even in this current day and age. Perhaps because my mother, Tsuruko, was raised by my grandfather, she is proud of the reverberatory furnace and cannot stop talking about it once she starts. She will be 91 years old this year, but she is still working at the gift shop to sell souvenirs. She was introduced on a filming trip in Nirayama for NHK’s “Tsurube no Kazoku ni Kanpai” (A Toast to the Family of Tsurube) and is known locally as the “energetic grandmother of the reverberatory furnace.”
－By the way, how did you and the local people around the reverberatory furnace get involved in the process of inscribing the “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” on the World Heritage List?
Inamura: Initially, the project was designed to focus on the heritage of modernization of the Kyushu and Yamaguchi area, but I think it is safe to say that it was not until the Japanese government finally decided to nominate us to UNESCO that we joined the project in earnest and created a system to promote it. We were told out of the blue that the history of the modern steel industry of Japan would not be complete without the participation of Kamaishi and Nirayama. That is how it felt at first.
But after that, the local community was overjoyed, and the support group of the reverberatory furnace (with 12,000 members) was established, volunteer guides were organized, and the movement accelerated. As I mentioned above, our company cooperated with the preservation and promotion of tourism as much as we could, including volunteer guides as part of our business. Nonetheless, as a result, the reverberatory furnace-related business, including the maintenance of the area around the reverberatory furnace has officially become a government project, so it settled for us to cooperate through our tourism business.
Inamura: Yes. The previous souvenir shop was located in the current guidance center. Nevertheless, the Izunokuni City decided to open a center as part of their development project for the World Heritage inscription, so to assist that we built a new gift shop—combined with a restaurant—across from the lawn park. The exterior of this facility was actually modeled after the exterior of a brewery from the Meiji period. The design was taken from an engraving of a woodblock print made as a tool for advertisement found in a Buddhist temple (see photo below).
Photo by Kuraya Narusawa Co., Ltd. / A woodblock print depicting a sake brewery in the Meiji era
Senior Researcher, Industrial Heritage Information Centre
Honorary Advisor, Nippon Mining Co., Ltd.
The Ambassador of Supporting Kamaishi Hometown
Former Director of Nagasaki City World Heritage Office
Former General Manager, Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Chairman, Fujisankei Group
Executive Managing Advisor, Fuji Television Network, Inc.
Executive Managing Advisor, Fuji Media Holdings, Inc.
Advisor, Federation of Japan Port and Airport Construction Association
(Ex. Chairman of Specialists Center of Port and Airport Engineering)
Mayor of Nagasaki City
Former Director of the Sano Tsunetami Memorial Museum (currently known as Sano Tsunetami and the Mietsu Naval Dock History Museum)
Director of NPO Association for Thinking about Satoyama
Director of National Congress of the Industrial Heritage
Honorary Chief Priest Toshinari Ueda
Former Mayor of Omuta City
Archaeologist and Heritage Conservation Specialist
A fellow of the Japan Federation of Engineering Societies
Team Member of the Industrial Project Team Office for the Promotion of World Heritage Listing under Cabinet Secretariat
Governor of Kagoshima Prefecture
Mayor of Hagi City
Mayor of Uki City, Kumamoto Prefecture
The Former Employee of Nippon Steel Corporation
An Associate Professor of the Faculty of Science and Engineering in Iwate University
Chairman of the Tourist Guide Association of Misumi West Port
President of Kuraya Narusawa Co., Ltd.
Chairman of Izunokuni City Tourism Association
Director and General Manager of Gunkanjima Concierge
Producer of the Gunkanjima Digital Museum
Owner at Tōge Chaya
Chairman: Mr. Hidenori Date
President: Mr. Masahiro Date
Proprietor, Houraikan Inn
Representative Director of Egawa Bunko non-profit incorporated foundation
The 42nd head of the Egawa Family
Democratic Party for the People (DPP) Representative for Nagasaki Prefecture
President of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima
Representative Director
MI Consulting Group
President of Watanabe Production Group and Honorary Chair of Watanabe Productions Co., Ltd.
Member of the House of Councillors
Governor
Kagoshima Prefecture
World Heritage Consultant
Director and Dean, The Kyushu-Asia Institute of Leadership
Representative Director, SUMIDA, Inc.
Journalist, founder of the Shimomura Mitsuko Ikikata Juku School
Representative, Rally Nippon
Chairman, Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution World Heritage Route Promotion Council Director, National Congress of Industrial Heritage
Representative Director, General Incorporated Foundation National Congress of Industrial Heritage (Advisor, Public Interest Incorporated Foundation Capital Markets Research Institute）
Mayor of Nagasaki City
Policy Director at Heritage Montreal
World Heritage Consultant
Executive Director of Kogakuin University
Heritage Architect and International Consultant
Head of Data Acquisition at The Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation
Head of Industrial Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh
Scottish Ten Project Manager, Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh
Mayor of Izunokuni City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Pro-Provost and Chairman of Council of the Royal College of Art. Heritage advisor of Canal & River Trust for England and Wales.
Dean of Tokyo Rissho Junior College
Professor emeritus of Keio University
Mayor of Kitakyushu City
At the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee convened in Bonn, Germany, from June 28 to July 8, 2015, the decision was approved to inscribe the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution on the World Heritage list.
At a celebratory party held to mark the occasion, some of the primary promoters of the project spoke of their joy in achieving their goal and of the trials and tribulations to getting there.
Director and Managing Executive Officer, Hanshin Expressway Company Limited
Member, Board of Directors, National Congress of Industrial Heritage
Vice-Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture
Mayor of Hagi City
Chairman, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
Mayor of Omuta City
Deputy Director-General, Lifelong Learning Policy Bureau, MEXT
Former Counsellor, Cabinet Secretariat
Mayor of Kamaishi City
Member, Board of Directors, National Congress of Industrial Heritage Counselor, Shimadzu Limited
Chairman of the Consortium for the World Heritage Inscription of Modern Industrial Heritage (Kyushu-Yamaguchi) and governor of Kagoshima Prefecture (as of 2015)