佐渡相川 後篇｜新潟県｜世界遺産・徳川幕府直轄の島 佐渡金山と三菱の鉱山町・上町から下町を歩いてみた｜DEFENDERで巡る冬の佐渡ひとり旅 第11話（最終回）【ぶらり#166】

Aikawa Town, the town of the Sado Gold Mine, a World Heritage Site, is the administrative center of northwest Sado. During the Edo period, Aikawa became a shogunate territory and was the location of the Sado Magistrate's Office, which oversaw Sado. As the central city of Sado, it is said that at its peak the population exceeded 100,000. When Sado Prefecture was established in the Meiji period, it also became the prefectural capital. [Table of Contents | Chapter] 00:00 Opening 02:14 Walking around the remains of the Sado mines 05:47 Doyu no Warito 06:36 Walking along Kyomachi Street from Aikawa Kamimachi and Daikumachi 11:14 Aikawa Detention Branch 14:28 Aikawa Kamimachi (Kamigyomachi to Shimogyomachi) 19:19 From Kamimachi to Shimomachi (Nagasaka) 21:34 Walking through Aikawa Shimomachi 26:48 Former Sado Magistrate's Office 29:20 Benkei's Scissors Rock 20:47 Leaving Sado 32:54 Ending The management of the Sado Gold Mine was transferred from the shogunate to the Meiji government, and then sold to the private sector and managed by Mitsubishi (now Mitsubishi Materials). The gold and silver reserves have not yet been depleted, but they are dormant because the current exchange rate is such that the cost of mining and refining is higher than the price of gold and silver. However, the gold mines are also a tourist resource that is synonymous with Sado, and many tourists visit, with about half of the tourists who visit Sado staying in Aikawa Town. Okubo Nagayasu, who was appointed as the magistrate of Sado, built the Sado Magistrate's Office on a plateau overlooking Aikawa Bay and developed the town. The town on the plateau around the magistrate's office is called Kamimachi, and the area along the coast about 2 km north to south is called Shimomachi, and between the two town areas, on the hillside of the plateau, Teramachi was formed. The land tax book from 1655 lists a total of 89 towns. Daikumachi and Tokoyamachi are home to miners. Yoneyamacho, Yaoyamachi, Yojimonomachi, Shioyamachi, and Misomachi are food-related businesses. Sumiyacho, Kamiyacho, and Itamachi are businesses selling daily necessities. Other towns include Chayamachi, Naramachi, Shibamachi, and Zaimokumachi, making for a townspeople's town structure comparable to that of a castle town. Kamimachi is known as "Kamiaikawa Senken" (Kami Aikawa Senken), and combined with Shimomachi, the port town of Aikawa, which supported a population of 100,000 at its peak, it flourished with goods related to the gold mine business, as well as daily necessities and food brought in from all over the country. At the northern end of the town is Mizukanemachi, a former red-light district. The town was relocated from the center of Aikawa to the Mizukane River in 1717, and is said to have had eleven red-light districts.