Oya Quarry in Utsunomiya

The Oya quarry is situated  just outside of Utsunomiya is a truly huge underground cavern. The stone mined is a beautiful off white colour and is actually ancient compacted volcanic ash. The depth is hundreds of meters which would mean really gigantic ancient eruptions produced it.

 The formations that contain the quarry are beautiful in themselves

You go down many many steps to the vast underground chambers.

 The scale is hard to imagine but it is a really incredibly large space. With dozens of enormous caverns.

One interesting aspect is how incredibly neat Japanese miners are. The walls are all perfectly straight and smooth.

The stone is quite light and porous and is used for decoration, retaining walls and facings. It is too light for very heavy load bearing.

The stone was much loved by Frank Lloyd Wright and he used it extensively in the building of his famous Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.