🗺️ Hagi Reflecting Furnace萩反射炉

The "Hagi Reflecting Furnace" is a Western-style metal melting furnace ruin located in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Built in 1856 by the Hagi Domain in response to foreign threats, it was intended for the production of iron cannons. Today, the site only retains a chimney made of stacked bricks, approximately 10 meters high. The reflecting furnace utilized the most advanced technology of its time, reflecting the flames from the combustion chamber off the ceiling to use the heat for melting iron. There are only three remaining reflecting furnace sites in Japan: the one in Hagi, the one in Nirayama, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the former Integrated Museum in Kagoshima Prefecture. The Hagi Reflecting Furnace was designated a historic building in 2015 and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the title "Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining." According to discovered ancient documents, the reflecting furnace never officially operated and only reached the trial furnace stage. However, it stands as a valuable structure that records the Hagi Domain's challenge to adopt the latest technology and attempt industrialization.

A reflection furnace built in 1856 for the production of cannon. It is one of the three remaining reflection furnaces in Japan. In 2015, it was designated as a component of a World Heritage site. It is a precious building that symbolizes the history of industrialization in Japan.