
Gifu Prefectural Museum of Natural Resources 7th Anniversary, Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture, 1908. (Colorized)
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“The interior of the Kyoto Commercial Museum”, Kyoto, c. 1920.
Nagara-gawa (Nagara River) Bridge, c. 1920.
Following the Meiji Restoration (1868), Gifu Prefecture* experienced significant changes in the management and development of its natural resources as part of Japan’s broader modernization efforts.
Historically, the prefecture served as the center of swordmaking for the whole of Japan, with the blacksmiths of the towns that formed modern-day Seki being known for making the best swords in Japan (in what is now considered the home of modern Japanese kitchen cutlery).
The prefecture has been the scene of many decisive battles throughout Japan’s history, including Oda Nobunaga’s Siege of Inabayama Castle in 1567 during his campaign to unify all of Japan — renaming in victory both the lord’s castle and the surrounding area ‘Gifu’ — and where he created a new hanko (seal) that read Tenka fubu (‘All the world by force of arms’).
Known historically for its rich forests of cypress and cedar, Gifu Prefecture entered Japan’s modern era also rich in deposits of copper and lead. Mining, already common in Japan, was further developed to meet Japan’s growing industrial demands. Gifu’s Kamioka Mine, a source of gold, copper and zinc during the Tokugawa period, was entrusted to the Mitsui zaibatsu by the Meiji government and was grown into one of the largest zinc mines in Asia.
Gifu Prefecture also would take pride in its role in the development of hydroelectricity. Japan’s first full-scale hydroelectric dam and generator was installed on the Kiso River near Nakatsugawa in 1924, the largest gravity dam in Japan. It and an equally-large twin hydroelectric dam upriver still remain in operation 100 years later.
* Gifu Prefecture didn’t come into being until administrative changes made in the aftermath of the Restoration to the former daimyo provinces of Mino and Hida when much of the two provinces’ combined territories were merged into a new ‘Gifu Prefecture’ ca. 1871.