TALES FROM HISTORY
Itoigawa — The Forgotten City of Jade
From the creation of Honshu to Magatama jewels
On the far western edge of Niigata Prefecture sits the quiet city of Itoigawa. With a population of just over 40,000, it’s hard to believe it was once the bustling center of a thriving jade trade. That trade has long since vanished, yet diligent beachcombers can still find jade pieces along Itoigawa’s pebble shores.
The same tectonic upheavals that separated Japan from the Asian mainland, created the Fossa Magna, and uplifted the Japanese Alps also brought jade to the surface at Itoigawa from where it had been formed deep within the bowels of the earth 500 million years ago.
Before we get into the jade, let me explain a bit about the geology of Japan.
The Fossa Magna
Among the many Western advisors and teachers invited to Japan to assist in its modernization during the Meiji period (1868–1912) was the German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann.
In addition to his teaching position at Kaisei Gakkō, the forerunner to Tokyo Imperial University…
