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.
Shoko Shuseikan features a Western-style exterior, while its interior incorporates traditional Japanese architectural elements. The museum displays approximately 10,000 items, including machinery that was in operation at the time and helped lay the foundations of modern Japan, historical materials passed down through the Shimazu family, and objects associated with Nariakira.
In 2015, Shoko Shuseikan, together with part of Sengan-en, was registered as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution.” The adjacent Shimazu Satsuma Kiriko Factory also offers visitors a close-up look at the production process of the once-lost “Satsuma Kiriko” glassware, which was created by Nariakira and disappeared soon afterward.
