History
Shimane holds two of Japan’s more unusual superlatives at once: the country’s most mythologically significant shrine, and a silver mine that, for a couple of centuries, was genuinely important to the world economy.
Shimane and the wider world
Iwami Ginzan’s silver, discovered in 1526 and mined intensively through the 16th and 17th centuries, flowed out through Japanese, Portuguese, and Dutch trading networks into a global silver market that also included Spanish-colonial silver from the Americas — historians estimate Japan supplied roughly a third of the world’s silver at points during this period, with Iwami as its largest single source. That silver financed Japan’s trade with Ming China and helped monetize significant parts of the early modern global economy, long before Japan had any other direct diplomatic relationship with the West.
A more personal connection came over two centuries later: Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-Irish writer, arrived in Matsue in 1890 to teach English, married a local samurai’s daughter, and eventually took Japanese citizenship as Koizumi Yakumo. His books — including “Kwaidan,” a collection of Japanese ghost stories — became some of the first and most widely read English-language introductions to Japanese culture and folklore in the West, shaping how generations of English-speaking readers first encountered Japan.
Neighbors: Shimane and the rest of San’in
Shimane and neighboring Tottori together form the San’in region, sharing a Sea of Japan coastline, comparatively light tourist traffic relative to their cultural significance, and a mutual, unbothered comfort with being Japan’s two least-visited prefectures.
Getting there and getting around
Izumo Airport and Matsue Station (reached by limited express from Okayama or Hiroshima, roughly 2.5-3 hours) are the main gateways. Iwami Ginzan is best reached by car or local bus from Odashi Station.
