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A museum in Itoigawa City specializing in geology and jade. The Fossa Magna is the great rift zone that divides the Japanese archipelago east and west, with its western boundary being the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line. The museum features extensive exhibits on the formation of the Japanese landmass and Itoigawa-produced jade, presenting in an accessible way the geological and cultural significan…

Opened in 1994. Itoigawa is said to be the site of the world's first jade processing, known as a jade-producing region since the Jomon period. The existence of the Fossa Magna was discovered by German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann in the Meiji era.