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The copper flake-embedded, stone-paved streets of Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, are elegantly lined with antique wooden houses of tiled roofs and finely crafted latticework. Strolling down the streets, you feel as if you’ve been instantly transported back in time to an old Japanese castle town. The traditional cityscape of Takaoka dates to the rule of a sagacious early 17th century feudal lord, Toshinaga Maeda, who built his castle here.
Around the castle, the town grew and prospered. Maeda recruited skilled craftsmen and merchants from other parts of the country to nurture new industries in his town. Many of these imported craftsmen were masters in metal casting, and they produced an amazing array of exquisite metal molds. Takaoka metal casters began to use their excellent mold-making skills to manufacture copper utensils, eventually turning the town into the largest center for copperware production in Japan. Copper was, and still is, used in a wide range of traditional religious and cultural goods in Japan, including temple bells, containers for flower arrangement, tea ceremony utensils, Buddhist altar fittings and incense burners. Takaoka’s nationwide reputation for superb traditional crafts enabled it to flourish for ages to come.
In the early 20th century, as copper casters began to use their foundry techniques to produce aluminum pans and pots, a brand new industry emerged in the city, ushering in a new chapter in Takaoka’s history—as an aluminum processing hub. The shift to aluminum processing led to the evolution of traditional craftsmanship into an innovative new industrial landscape as the technologies developed in the local copper processing industry were applied to manufacturing sophisticated aluminum products. In the post-war era of Japan’s spectacular economic growth, the city churned out aluminum sashes and other building materials in response to surging demand from a construction boom.
Now aluminum processing is Takaoka’s mainstay industry, with the city’s output of aluminum products being among the largest in Japan. |
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| A 14-story commercial and cultural complex was completed in front of Takaoka Station in April 2004. With a hotel, restaurants, office space, a library, a high school, and a citizen center, the new landmark of the city is a mammoth showcase of urban amenities. |
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