What Are the Sado Gold and Silver Mines, and How Do You Visit Aikawa?
This guide is for visitors who want to understand the Sado Gold and Silver Mines and plan a visit to the Aikawa area on Sado Island. It follows the English pages of the Sado Tourism Association's site, Sado Sightseeing Navigation. We read them on 2026-10-04. Opening hours and closures change, so check the mine's own notices before you go.
What the mines are
The site says there are 55 mines on Sado that produced gold, silver and other metals. The major ones, the Nishimikawa Gold Mine, the Tsuruko Silver Mine and the Aikawa Gold and Silver Mine, are collectively known as the Sado Gold and Silver Mines. Over the 400 years since the Edo period they produced 78 tons of gold and 2,330 tons of silver. The site calls them the largest gold and silver mine in Japan, with a large impact on the domestic and international economy. One of its pages describes the Sado Gold Mine as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, although an older page on the same site still says the mines are aiming for registration. The newer wording is the one to rely on.
Ten places in the Aikawa area
The site's gold and silver mine page lists ten stops, with its own estimate of the time each needs:
- Historic Site Sado Gold Mine: the 400-year history, with a popular tour of the tunnels. 1 to 2 hours.
- Doyu no Warito: the V-shaped split mountain top, a symbol of the mine, and the Doyu Tunnel course. 30 minutes, or 1 to 2 hours with the tunnel course.
- Sado Magistrate's Office: set up when the island came under the shogunate's direct control. The site also included a place for refining gold and silver. 1 to 1.5 hours.
- Aikawa History Museum: exhibits on the mines, in the former Sado office of the Imperial Household's property bureau. 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Oma Port: used for shipping ore, with views of the sunset. 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Kirarium Sado: a guidance facility that explains the history through video. The site suggests stopping here before the historic sites. 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Odate Tateko: said to be the oldest Western-style shaft in Japan, 352 metres long. 15 minutes.
- Former Aikawa Detention Center: a wooden building you can enter freely, registered as a Tangible Cultural Property. 15 to 30 minutes.
- Kyomachi Street: a street linking the mine with the magistrate's office. The Yoinomai folk dance parade is held there in June. 1 to 1.5 hours.
- Kitazawa Flotation Plant: ruins of a plant once known as the best of its kind in the East, illuminated at night in the tourist season. 15 to 30 minutes.
The two tunnels
The site's closure notice explains that the Sodayu Tunnel means the mine tunnels dug in the Edo period, and the Doyu Tunnel means the modern tunnels of the Meiji period. Another page says that full-size dolls and robots in the Sodayu Tunnel show how the work was done in the past, while the Doyu Tunnel holds relics of modernisation and industrialisation.
Kitazawa in more detail
The site says the Kitazawa district holds a dense cluster of facilities, designated a National Historic Site, that helped modernise the mine, including a power plant and a thickener. It says the flotation method, first used for copper, was adapted to gold and silver there, and that it was the first successful practical use of the method in Japan. A brick power plant stands right next to the concrete foundations. The site is lit up during the tourist season, which gives a different scene from the daytime.
Closures announced for 2025 and 2026
A notice on the site announced renovations from December 2025. The souvenir shop and museum were to close from December 2, 2025, the shop until spring 2026 and the museum until a date to be decided. From January 16 to March 31, 2026 the whole mine was to be closed every Wednesday, with reduced tunnel access on other days. From April 1, 2026, both tunnels were to open daily from 8:00 to 16:00. We cannot tell whether the museum and shop have reopened, so ask before planning around them.
Getting there and moving around
The first-time visitor guide gives about 50 minutes by car from Ryotsu Port to Aikawa. Direct buses from Ryotsu Port to the mine are infrequent, so plan the bus timetable carefully. For short distances, e-bikes called Eco-Da-Chari can be rented at tourist information centres. See our guide to getting to Sado for the ferry routes.
What we could not verify, and therefore left out
- Admission prices and tour lengths, which the English pages we read do not give.
- Whether the museum and souvenir shop have reopened after the renovation.
- Night-time lighting hours, which the site does not state.
Related guides
- How do you get to Sado Island by ferry from Niigata and Naoetsu, and get around?
- What is Sado like beyond the mine? Tub boats, Noh, the ibis and the Osado Mountains
Sources
All URLs retrieved 2026-10-04.
- Let's go around Sado Gold and Silver Mines (Sado Sightseeing Navigation) — (the ten stops, production figures)
- Sado Gold Mine closures for renovations 2025-2026 (Sado Sightseeing Navigation) — (closures, the two tunnels)
- Kitazawa Flotation Plant (Sado Sightseeing Navi) — (the site and its lighting)
- History and Culture (Sado Sightseeing Navigation) — (Kitazawa, Sodayu and Doyu tunnels)
- First-time visitor guide (Sado Sightseeing Navigation) — (World Heritage wording, driving time, buses)
- Photo Spots (Sado Sightseeing Navi) — (older wording on the World Heritage bid)