Heda Stone Quarry

Background

Located on the western side of the Izu Peninsula and part of Numazu City, the Heda Stone Quarry was the most remote, vast, difficult to navigate and simply amazing of all the quarries I visited. It is all posted private property, but I had the good fortune of tagging along with a group of locals who had gone to check out some recent findings.

Some of the Heda specific kokuin carvings (such as a square with a circle containing the number 7) have been found at the Sakurada and Shimizu Gates of Edo Castle. Also, the family crest of Hosokawa can be spotted around the Hirakawa and Shimizu Gates. From the writing and family crests that were found carved into stones at this site, we know that at least three daimyo, Hosokawa, Nabeshima, and Matsuura, quarried stone here. In particular the Hosokawa and Nabeshima were charged with supplying stone for the walls of Edo Castle in 1606 and 1614

Heda was by far the most fascinating stone quarry I've seen so far. The kokuin and writings carved in stone are more varied and the scale of untouched ruins scattered around the mountain is impressive. There are areas where the stone has been mostly cut away making some relatively even open spaces. There are paths where dozens, if not hundreds, of stones were transported along them cutting ridges into the ground. There are also areas of steep valleys where many many stones are piled on top of each other. It looks like a dumping ground or a place where the smaller stones were piled up to be transported away. This is a really interesting area so I hope the town will develop it a little to make it at least a little bit more accessible to the average castle fanatic.

Like the others, the Heda stone quarry is not on any map, nor are there any materials available to guide you around the ruins. The mountain is private property, quite steep, a bit treacherous in areas. There are no trails to find the impressive stones so it is not accessible without a guide.

Comparing the Heda Quarry with others I've visited it looks like it is the early stages of being worked. There are many stones in all stages of being marked off, drilling ya-ana holes, and huge stones that have just been marked for cutting and not much of the exposed surface rock has been worked or removed yet. There are no flat or open areas that looked like they've been quarried out and there are several stones with the lines marked into them. This point is particularly interesting. In one book I read (石垣が語る江戸城) the author comments that he is only aware of 2 stones with the lines marked into them for cutting, but there are now several known examples from the Heda Quarry.

At other quarries there are large open areas where you can tell the ground has been worked flat and most of the stones left behind are pieces or mistakes.

- private property, some for sale, some developed over, even recently

Gallery

ほそかわ越中守石場 / Hosokawa Etchuu-no-kami Ishiba

notice the kokuin on the open face of the split stone in the back

鍋島信濃 / Nabeshima Shinano

鍋島信濃守 Nabeshima Shinano-no-kami

これよりにし　ほそかわ越中守石場 Here begins the quarry of Hosokawa Etchu-no-kami

What genius thought this was a good idea?

Loading map...

Head Stone Quarry Profile
English Name	Head Stone Quarry
Japanese Name	戸田石切場
Location	Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture
Castle	Edo Castle
Coordinates	34.96157, 138.77156
Loading map... {"type":"TERRAIN","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps","width":"auto","height":"200px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":9,"layers":[],"controls":[""],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":34.96455,"lon":138.77345,"icon":""}]}
Edo Castle Stone Quarries
Atami Coast Quarries Banbaura Stone Quarry Futo Stone Quarry Hayakawa Stone Quarry Heda Stone Quarry Ito Kawaguchi Park Maruyama Stone Quarry Ohkawa Yato-no-iri Stone Quarry Usami Hanareyama Stone Quarry Usami Harbor & Town Usami Nakoyama To-no-iri Stone Quarry Yugawa Stone Quarry

5.00

(one vote)

Loading comments...