The Mechanical Engineering Heritage (Japan) (機械遺産, kikaiisan) is a list of sites, landmarks, machines, and documents that made significant contributions to the development of mechanical engineering in Japan. Items in the list are certified by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) (日本機械学会, Nihon Kikai Gakkai).
Overview
The Mechanical Engineering Heritage program was inaugurated in June 2007 in connection with the 110th anniversary of the founding of the JSME. The program recognizes machines and their related systems, factories, specification documents, textbooks, and other items that had a significant impact on the development of mechanical engineering in Japan. When a certified item can no longer be maintained by its current owner, the JSME acts to prevent its loss by arranging a transfer to the National Science Museum of Japan or to a local government institution.
Categories
Items in the Mechanical Engineering Heritage (Japan) are classified into four categories:
Sites: Historical sites that contain heritage items.
Landmarks: Representative buildings, structures, and machinery.
Collections: Collections of machinery, or individual machines.
Documents: Machinery-related documents of historical significance.
Each item is assigned a Mechanical Engineering Heritage number. No. 100 is a dual entry, composed of both a collection and documents.
Heritage No. 11 – A 0 series railcar in Tokyo in May 1967
Produced by Tachikawa Aircraft Company Ltd because of the oil shortage after World War II. The car has a single 36V, 120A motor and can travel 65 km with a single charge, has a maximum speed of 35 km/h
Machines are: 2 silk reeling machines imported by French engineer Paul Brunat (ポール・ブリューナ) for Tomioka silk mill and various Japanese-made silk machines
Made by Akabane Engineering Works, Ministry of Industry
068
1954
Collection
Fuji Automatic Massage Machine
Osaka prefecture
Developed by Nobuo Fujimoto, who created Fuji Seisakusho.[c]
069
1932, first edition
Document
The Collection of Drawings for Japanese Machines
Tokyo
Created for the purpose of "disseminating correct knowledge of domestic products to general engineers and serving as reference drawings in terms of teaching mechanical engineering."[9]
Produced by Eizo Hayashi, president of Rinyeisha Co. at that time.
Items certified in 2019
Heritage No. 97 – Roundhouse of the Kyoto Railway Museum, 8 of the 23 displayed locomotives are still functional as well as the inspection equipment that was built in 1915Heritage No. 99 – a Nikkari monorack
Developed by Japan Karitoriki Kogyo (now known as Nikkari [ja])
Items certified in 2020
Heritage No. 101 – Asahiflex I from 1952
No.
Year created
Type
Description
Location
Notes
100
Collection & Documents
Educational equipment for mechanical engineering from the Imperial College of Engineering (工部大学校, Kōbu Daigakko) and related documents from Imperial College students and mechanics teacher C.D. West
Invented by Gaun Tatsumune (ja:臥雲辰致) and nicknamed Gara Bo because of the sound that the machine makes Gara Gara Bousyokuki:Gara Gara cotton-spinning machine, (ja:ガラ紡)[11]
Items certified in 2023
Heritage No. 118 – Model 3000, Odakyu RomanceCar SE, Odakyu Electric Railway, Japan
Heritage No. 128 – Tōkyū 5000 series, Deha 5001 (pictured) was preserved in front of Shibuya Station, Tokyo, and functioned as a tourist information center, it was relocated to Ōdate, Akita in June 2020[12]
Items certified in 2025
Heritage No. 132 – the Suzulight SS at the Suzuki History Museum
No.
Year created
Type
Description
Location
Notes
127
1952
Collection
Corona gas oil heater Type SB, a pressurized oil stove