The Oku-Izumo mountain range Oku-Izumo provinces are regions where the myth of Japan was made. This provinces have abundant four seasonss. And, many good quality iron sand is produced there, and a large amount of charcoal is supplied, too. Those raw materials are indispensable to the steel manufacture industry.

A baldness mountain You can encounter such a scenery when you travel around this provinces.

Hiikawa river This river was used as industrial use for the steel manufacture industry.

Material pavilion of Tatara steel manufacture industry Yokota-city, Shimane Prefecture, industry was active steel manufacture from old times. Japan hardly has the resource of the iron ore, but iron sand was abundant. The technology is called Tatara which produces steel from iron sand. There is a material pavilion of steel manufacture by the Tatara method in the Yokota-city.

Iron sand Oku-Izumo provinces had abundant iron sand resources. The quality of those iron sands was very high. A high-level Japanese sword is made from this iron sand.

Furnace of Tatara (Cross section) This is a steel manufacture system by the Tatara method. The iron sand and charcoal are turned on to this furnace. When charcoal is burnt, the iron sand dissolves and becomes a pig iron.

Kera The mass of the iron refined in the Tatara method is called Kera. This is iron with very high purity. This mass becomes the raw material of the Japanese sword.

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