Regional Focus: Niihama

The Taikodai Festival is held over six areas of the city. It’s one of the biggest festivals in Shikoku. It’s also called Otoko Matsuri or Men’s Festival, because it’s a very masculine affair, with drum wagons that are hauled around by local men. These massive platforms consist of an internal wooden frame with a drum and a drummer. The frames are decorated lavishly with relief embroidery depicting dragons, traditional buildings, and legends. Around the top are colourful braided quilts, finished off with huge tassels.

The event originated some 800 years ago to pray for an abundant harvest. In the Meiji period, the taikodai were quite small, but their size increased in step with the development of local industry. The taikodai are blessed in shrines and then paraded around the city. Where several of them gather, the men trundle them back and forth, sometimes lifting the taikodai into the air. This is called kakikurabe. Everything is accompanied by shouts of “Sorya! Sorya!”. Every other year, the festival takes to the water, with a parade of taikodai on barges in the sea, to pray for a good catch.

The Akagane Museum is an elegant modern building located near JR Niihama Station. Curved wings clad in copper scales flank a rectangular glass entrance. The curves and straight lines continue inside the building, creating an airy, agreeable space. The walls are white, while dark wood is used on the stairs and benches.

The main exhibits in the museum are related to the Taikodai Festival held in autumn in Niihama, when juggernauts known as taikodai or ‘drum platforms’ are pulled through the city. Each area of the city has its own taikodai, and the taikodai of each district is exhibited for two months on a rotating basis. They’re adorned with traditional Japanese arts such as wood carving, embroidery, tasselling, and fabrics. If you’re not in Niihama for the Taiko Festival, you can get a flavour of it in the 360° cinema.

Entry to the Taikodai Museum is free of charge, but admission is charged for the temporary exhibitions held in the other galleries.

The Besshi Copper Mine Memorial Museum is located in the valley below the mine. It stands in the grounds of Ōyamazumi Shrine, which enshrines the guardian spirit of Besshi Copper Mine. The museum building is built into the ground, recalling the mine, and its roof is planted with azaleas, which bloom in vivid pinks in May. In front of the museum is a steam locomotive used on the mine railway, and also an electric locomotive and rolling stock.

The museum has exhibition areas on five themes; the history of Besshi and Sumitomo, the daily life of the miners, the geology that produced copper, mining techniques, and the story of how smoke pollution from copper smelting was overcome. Exhibits include models and dioramas, various products made of copper, prints from the Edo period, evocative photos, geological samples, and tools and clothing used by the miners.

Entry to the museum is free. Visits to the other museums and sites related to the copper mine are recommended.

Besshiame Honpo is a confectionary shop in Niihama selling “Besshi Candy”, a specialty of the shop. These are boiled sweets in a choice of flavours – mandarin, strawberry, tea, coffee, cocoa, and peanut, wrapped individually in a colourful twist of paper, for a nostalgic look. For many years, the sweets were popular with visitors to Ehime and with local people.

The shop was established in the first year of the Meiji period in 1868. In 1926, the company started making the candy which would later become Besshiame.

In addition to Besshiame, the company has introduced some new versions of traditional Japanese confectionary such as yōkan, a jelly-like sweet, and cheesecake with a Japanese twist. Various biscuits and rice crackers are also available. They make nice souvenirs and they’re also convenient as snacks during your trip. There’s also an udon restaurant attached to the shop.

Behind Besshi Copper Mine Memorial Museum is a small mountain topped with a brick chimney standing about 20 m high. A footpath goes up to the chimney through attractive woodland. The chimney stands on a flat shoulder of the hill. There’s a square of bricks embedded in the ground, showing the size of the chimney at its top. In spring, the cherry trees planted around blossom. The mountain, called Mt. Shōji, is generally known as Chimney Mountain. You can look out over the city of Niihama to the Seto Inland Sea and the mountains behind.

The chimney once belonged to the Yamane copper smelter built at the foot of the mountain in 1888. A flue went straight up the hill from the smelter to the chimney. However, winds from the mountains behind blew the smoke into the rice fields of Niihama below, causing the farmers to complain. The chimney is the oldest heritage of the heavy chemical industry in Japan.

Cocokuru Niihama is a facility offering tourist information and local produce. A touch panel information kiosk displays Google Maps with tourist information in English, Chinese, and Korean. The kiosk has several USB charging ports where you can recharge your devices. A tourist pamphlet in English is also available. Various pamphlets in Japanese have useful maps.

You can also purchase a selection of local products including sake from Niihama’s Kondō Brewery, confectionary from Besshiame Honpo, and condiments from Ichiume Vinegar.

Cocokuru is located at the eastern end of JR Niihama Station close to Akagane Museum. Look for the cute anime child character.

The Ehime Prefectural Science Museum stands in the foothills of Mt. Ishizuchi in Niihama. It was established in 1994 for presenting scientific knowledge including natural history, astronomy, the environment, biology, industry, and technology through hands-on experience. The modernistic building features simple geometric shapes, and a geodesic dome houses a large planetarium, which was the world’s largest until 2010. It also doubles as a cinema.

On the fourth floor are exhibits related to Nature, divided into three zones, Space, Earth, and Ehime. Exhibits include well-made dioramas, information panels, replicas, stuffed animals, skeletons, minerals, and even two robotic dinosaurs which come to life at fifteen-minute intervals. The third floor is dedicated to Science, with zones for the Elements, Life, Transmission, and Movement. There’s also an Ehime Industry section on this floor.

Behind the museum is an outdoor area displaying industrial hardware, including a power generation turbine and smelter. With its lawns and views of Mt. Akaishi, it’s a nice place for a picnic.