MOVIE

The Tokugawa Treasure: Final Excavation

1994 · 95 min · Documentary · TV Movie

A magnificent hole.

Between 1990 and 1993, Japan's TBS network spent ¥350 million digging into the side of Mount Akagi, searching for the legendary shogunate gold that vanished during the Meiji Restoration. This 1994 TV movie compiles the four-year excavation into a single 95-minute documentary: copywriter Shigesato Itoi as the unlikely captain, the Mizuno family's three-generation obsession, American psychics consulted in earnest, and contractor Mochizuki running heavy machinery deeper into the mountain than anyone had gone before.