Sugaya Tatara Sannai

Published: Aug 11, 2026

Updated: Aug 11, 2026

tataraSugayaironworkstamahaganeUnnan

Representative image — not a photograph of this location.

Tatara is the Japanese smelting method that produced tamahagane, the steel used for swords — iron sand and charcoal fed into a clay furnace and worked for three days and nights without stopping. It was concentrated in the mountains of Izumo, where the sand and the timber were, and it built the fortunes of this part of Shimane. Sugaya is where you can still see the building it happened in.

The takadono at Sugaya is the only surviving structure of its kind in Japan: a large timber shed built around the furnace, with the roof arrangement that let the heat and smoke out. It operated until 1921 and is designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property. Around it stands the sannai — the workers' settlement, with the row houses, the master's residence and the ancillary buildings still in place, so the site reads as a whole industrial village rather than a single exhibit. Tickets are bought at the three-unit row house facing the takadono.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, last entry 4:00 PM (some listings give a 4:00 PM close — confirm before a late visit)

Closed: Closed Mondays, or the following day when the Monday is a national holiday

Entrance Fee

¥310 adults | ¥210 elementary and junior high school students

Best Season

Year-round | Late October–November for colour in the surrounding hills

Visit Duration

60–90 minutes | 3 hours with the Iron History Museum

Getting There

Access Information

Yoshida-cho, Unnan. Car recommended. Admission ¥310 for adults and ¥210 for elementary and junior high school students, paid at the Sangen Nagaya row house opposite the takadono. Open 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM with last entry at 4:00 PM; some listings give a 4:00 PM close, so confirm before a late visit. Closed Mondays, or the following day when the Monday is a national holiday.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Go inside and look up.** The takadono is a shed built around a furnace, and its logic is all in the roof and the pit. Standing in the middle and looking at how the structure handled three days of continuous fire is the whole visit — from outside it is just a large wooden building. **Buy the ticket first.** Entry is handled at the Sangen Nagaya, the three-unit row house facing the takadono, not at the building itself. Walking up to the takadono and finding it locked is a common false start. **Walk the settlement.** The point of Sugaya is that the whole sannai survives — the workers' housing, the master's house, the storage buildings. Treating it as one building and leaving in fifteen minutes misses what makes it unique. **Add the Iron History Museum.** The Tetsu no Rekishi Hakubutsukan in Yoshida covers the wider tatara industry and the Tanabe family who ran it, and gives the context that the site itself does not spell out. The two together are a comfortable half-day. **Closing times are inconsistently published.** Sources give both 5:00 PM and 4:00 PM. Treat 4:00 PM as the practical last entry and do not plan to arrive late in the afternoon.

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