Home/Niigata/Itoigawa/Fossa Magna Museum

Fossa Magna Museum

jadeFossa MagnageoparkgeologyItoigawa

Niigata · Itoigawa

37.0235°N, 137.8692°E

The Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line runs through this city — the western edge of the Fossa Magna, the enormous rift that splits Honshu in two and along which the island was effectively assembled. The museum exists because Itoigawa sits on that seam, and its collection is built around what the seam produces.

The headline material is jade. Itoigawa jadeite is the oldest known worked jade in the world; beads and axes made here were traded across the Japanese archipelago from about 5,000 years ago, and Japan chose it as the national stone in 2016. Six exhibition areas cover the jade, the rift, and rocks and fossils from around the world, with the specimens laid out for people who came to look at stones rather than to be entertained. The city is a UNESCO Global Geopark with 24 designated geosites, and the museum is the place to start on those.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

9:00 AM – 4:30 PM (closes 5:00 PM)

Closed: Closed Mondays and the day after public holidays from December to February, and December 28 – January 4

Entrance Fee

¥500 adults | Free for high school students and under

Best Season

Year-round; after autumn and winter storms for jade washed onto the beaches

Visit Duration

1.5–2 hours

Getting There

Access Information

Ichinomiya 1313, inside Miyama Park, Itoigawa City. About 10 minutes by car from Itoigawa Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen. Open 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, closing 5:00 PM. Admission ¥500 adults, free for high school students and under. Closed Mondays and the day after public holidays from December to February, and December 28 to January 4; otherwise open daily.

Insider Guide

Premium

**The staff will identify stones you bring in.** Free jade identification is a service the museum runs, and it is the reason a fair number of visitors are carrying carrier bags of beach pebbles. **Hunting jade is a real activity here.** Jadeite washes down the Himekawa and Kotaki rivers onto beaches west of the city. Collecting on the beaches is allowed; the riverbeds within the designated natural monument areas are not. After a storm is when people go. **Book the geopark before the beach.** Twenty-four geosites are spread over a large area with poor public transport, and the museum has the maps and current access conditions. **Combine with the Chojagahara Archaeological Museum.** It stands beside this one and covers the Jomon settlement that worked the jade — the two together make the case that a stone shaped a culture.

View on Google Maps