Shoko Shuseikan Museum

The 11th lord of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Nariakira was the pioneer of promoting modern practices of Western-factories, creating furnaces for cannon making, creating ships, glass, textiles and more. His modernizations as a whole are dubbed the “Shuseikan Jigyo”.

Though Nariakira passed away in 1858, his legacy continued in the form of craftsmanship. In 1865, a machine factory creating ship parts was established. The factory, now, is the “Shoko Shuseikan Museum” which tells the story of 800 years of the Shimazu family and its culture.

The Shoko Shuseikan was built using western design, but the interior adopts a Japanese design philosophy. There are approximately 10,000 artifacts on exhibit, such as machines, a model of the furnace, Japan’s oldest Silver plate photo, treasures of the Shimazu clan, and other artifacts related to Nariakira.

In 2015, the museum, alongside Sengan-en was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage, and part of “Sites of Meiji Japan’s Industrial Revolution”. Viewers may also visit the adjacent “Shimazu Satsuma Kiriko Factory”, which gives glimpses of the production of “Satsuma Kiriko”, a glass manufacturing process that was created by Nariakira, and was said to go extinct.