Muguruma Family Furnace Hut

Period:

End of the 1800s (Mid-Meiji Period) 

Former Location:

Minato, Higashikagawa, Kagawa Prefecture

Designation:

Nationally Registered Important Tangible Folk Cultural Asset

Turning Honed Craft Skill into Refined Sugar

The cane juiced pressed in sato-shime huts was boiled in these three pots, or kama, to make shiroshitato, or unrefined sugar, then further refined into white sugar. This process led to one of the Sanuki region’s specialties, wasanbon sugar.

Boiling

Arakama (rough pot) boiling helps to clarify and smooth the cane juice, then impurities are removed in cooling tanks. The juice is further concentrated and refined in chukama (medium) and agekama (finishing) pots. The work was all done by the highly trained skills of artisans, without the aid of thermometers or hydrometers to measure sugar content.