Aji and its Stone

Aji is a neighborhood in the north-east of Takamatsu. Actually, it used to be its own village before being incorporated to the city a few years ago. However, despite being now part of Takamatsu, it remains isolated enough to still feel like a village. This what it looks like seen from Yashima:

To help you locate it, as I just mentioned, the picture was taken from Yashima, and the mountains in the background, in the Seto Inland Sea, are actually Shodoshima. Also, Aji is the northernmost point of the island of Shikoku (but not of the region of Shikoku, that would be somewhere in the north-east of Shodoshima, near Yoshida).

Aji is famous for its stone, apparently one of the finest granites around. Is it famous locally? regionally? nationally? internationally? I have no idea.

Where does this stone come from? This beautiful scenery doesn’t seem to include an industry revolving around quarrying.

Well, it comes from Mount Nyotai, a part of Mount Goken, just south of the village. If you just pan to the right from the view above, you can’t miss it, the quarries have completely changed (dare I say disfigured?) the small mountain:

Impressive, isn’t it? The Aji quarries, but also all the stones everywhere downhill by the sea.

Oh and if you’re into the Shikoku Pilgrimage, know that the little turquoise spec near the top right side of the picture is Yakuri-ji, the pilgrimage’s 85th temple.

And it’s even more impressive when you zoom a little and compare the size of the excavators with the rest of the scenery:

I guess that now, I need to show you more of Aji stone on the blog. I’ve already talked about lamps made from Aji stone (they’re pretty popular around here).