Fukiya today

Fukiya was a trading center for iron since ancient times. From the Edo through the Meiji periods, it flourished as one of western Japan's leading producers of copper and bengara pigment. Both the copper mines and the production of bengara reached their peak during the Meiji Period, and many of the structures seen in today's Fukiya Furusato Village were built by wealthy bengara traders during that era.

The bengara pigment produced in Fukiya was known as "the red among reds" and was traded throughout Japan. It was celebrated as far away as Scandinavia as the red used for renowned Kutani and Imari porcelain ware. Due to the high demand for bengara, traders and producers such as the Nishie family were able to amass enormous fortunes.

New technologies developed following the end of World War II, however, enabled high-quality bengara to be produced easily, leading to the decline of bengara production in Fukiya and the eventual closing of the copper mines there.

Today, bengara is synthetically produced in chemical plants, but it is said that the red color thus obtained cannot match that of Fukiya's famed bengara.

The Nishie family settled in Sakamoto village in Fukiya in the 16th century, during the Age of Warring States. The head of the family at the time was Nishie Ookura Kiyonari, a member of the samurai class defending the mountain fortress in the area. During the Edo Period, the Nishie family was given the title of ojoya and granted rule over the Tokugawa Shogunate's territory in the area. The Nishie residence thus doubled as a magistrate's office. The sixth head of the family, Nishie Heiemon, started the Motoyama Copper Mine together with the Tanimoto family, which also lived in Sakamoto village. They succeeded in coagulating roha, the raw material for producing bengara, and became extremely wealthy as a result. The present Nishie Residence was built by Heiemon at the height of his prosperity in the Edo Period, and has been continuously inhabited by the family ever since. Thanks to the family's painstaking care over many generations, the mansion retains its original splendor to the present day.

One of the Nishie Residence's five kura storehouses has been turned into a museum, and is open to visitors who can view the family's collection of precious heirlooms, including Imari porcelain ware and Wajima lacquer ware colored with Fukiya bengara.