Bedroom at Nichitsu Mining Village, a traditional Japanese washitsu.

01 Nichitsu Mining VillageChichibu2016

ISO 1001sf/9.014mm

Series · 36 prints

Nichitsu Mining Village

Photographed 2016
Frames 36
Camera NIKON D810 · NIKON D7000
Location Saitama, Japan
Status Mine closed September 2022; settlement uninhabited since 2006; school demolished by April 2025
Closed 2022
Specs 140+ mineral species · Skarn-type mineralisation · Multiple deposits: Daikoku, Akaiwa, Doshinkubo
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Nichitsu Mining Village - formally Ogura-sawa settlement - sits in the mountains above Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture. The mine was first worked around 1600 by the Kai Takeda clan, Takeda Shingen's house, who panned gold and placer gold from its streams. In 1765 the Edo-period polymath Hiraga Gennai entered the valley to mine gold; his residence, Gennai-kyo, survives as a Chichibu City historic site. Yanase Trading bought the mine in 1910 and added iron-ore extraction. Nichitsu Mining Development took over in 1937 and reorganised as Nichitsu Mining Industry in 1950. By the 1960s the mine produced 500,000 tonnes a year of zinc, magnetite and over 140 mineral species - the most varied mine in Japan - supporting a town of 2,000 to 2,400 people with two schools, a hospital, a fire department, a cinema and a post office. Metal mining stopped in 1978; quartz sand began in 1969; crystalline limestone carried on until 30 September 2022, when Nitchitsu Co. closed the operation entirely.

03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed limited editions, printed from the original RAW file. Editions run from 100 down to 25 and are not reissued once they sell through.

Bedroom at Nichitsu Mining Village, a traditional Japanese washitsu.
Bedroom
Yokusou at Nichitsu Mining Village, a small bathhouse room, tiled floor to ceiling in white square ceramic.
Yokusou
Theatre at Nichitsu Mining Village, a collapsed stage curtain hangs in shreds at the far end of the hall.
Theatre
Studio at Nichitsu Mining Village, a plaid swivel chair faces a compact electric organ in the corner of a small.
Studio
Storeroom at Nichitsu Mining Village, papers and folders cover every centimetre of the floor.
Storeroom
Road at Nichitsu Mining Village, dried susuki grass spills across a narrow road, the stalks pale and brittle against.
Road
Public Bath at Nichitsu Mining Village, a hexagonal stone bath sits dry and empty in a tiled room.
Public Bath
Piano Keys at Nichitsu Mining Village, the white keys are grey with grime.
Piano Keys
Nike Air at Nichitsu Mining Village, a pair of white leather Nike high-tops sit on grey timber floorboards.
Nike Air
Main Entrance at Nichitsu Mining Village, weathered timber buildings line a narrow asphalt road that curves into the valley.
Main Entrance
Looking Out at Nichitsu Mining Village, a traditional Japanese room sits empty.
Looking Out
Living Quarters Walkway at Nichitsu Mining Village, a Japanese maple burns red above a narrow passage between timber.
Living Quarters Walkway
Living Quarters Exterior at Nichitsu Mining Village, a two-storey timber and plaster building stands open to the elements.
Living Quarters Exterior
Living Quarters Alley at Nichitsu Mining Village, two wooden residential buildings lean toward each other across a narrow.
Living Quarters Alley
Living Quarters at Nichitsu Mining Village, a tatami room inside a collapsed Japanese dwelling.
Living Quarters
Laundry at Nichitsu Mining Village, glass bottles and a rusted fuel tin sit against a concrete wall, their labels faded.
Laundry
Kitchen at Nichitsu Mining Village, a small kitchen in one of Nichitsu's residential buildings.
Kitchen
Kids Bedroom at Nichitsu Mining Village, a corner room in a Japanese timber-framed house.
Kids Bedroom
Kettle at Nichitsu Mining Village, an aluminium kettle sits on a timber bench beside a window.
Kettle
Genkan at Nichitsu Mining Village, two pairs of slippers sit on the worn timber floor of a genkan, their floral fabric.
Genkan
Garden at Nichitsu Mining Village, a narrow passage runs between a traditional Japanese timber-frame house and a corrugated.
Garden
Fire Station at Nichitsu Mining Village, a corrugated iron shed with its roller door half-closed.
Fire Station
Dining Table at Nichitsu Mining Village, a low wooden chabudai sits at the centre of a tatami room, dust thick.
Dining Table
Bridge at Nichitsu Mining Village, a steel pedestrian bridge sits buried under fallen branches and leaf litter.
Bridge
Balcony at Nichitsu Mining Village, a two-storey timber building rises behind a rough stone retaining wall.
Balcony
Kindergarten at Nichitsu Mining Village, the timber floored kindergarten with a piano.
Kindergarten
School Hall at Nichitsu Mining Village, a timber floored corridor running past the classrooms.
School Hall
Overgrowth at Nichitsu Mining Village, looking upwards from the central part of the village towards some of the public.
Overgrowth
Study Room at Nichitsu Mining Village, an old computer in a decaying tatami mat floored room.
Study Room
Locker Room at Nichitsu Mining Village, the locker storage area for students at the end of the school corridor.
Locker Room
Bottles at Nichitsu Mining Village, a crate full of empty sake bottles awaiting the collection that never came.
Bottles
Dining Room at Nichitsu Mining Village, the communal dining area of one of the buildings.
Dining Room
Dentist at Nichitsu Mining Village, a rusted dental chair stands amidst the decay of a forgotten office in Nichitsu Mining.
Dentist
Living Room at Nichitsu Mining Village, an old television set in an abandoned living room.
Living Room
Surgery at Nichitsu Mining Village, a decaying doctors surgery.
Surgery
Entrance at Nichitsu Mining Village, the timber weatherboard facade of a communal building.
Entrance
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

06 PRESS

In the press

Often I'd find myself looking at the machines and architecture and challenging myself to find one single object designed purely for aesthetics. Craftsmanship made way for efficiency in engineering long before I'd even left school.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

People talk about what it was like to work or stay in these places, who they knew, what they did, how great the Christmas parties were, that store man nobody liked, what all the different machines were, how they worked and what became of them.

Broadsheet

Brett Patman·2016

lostcollective.com

On the LC archive.

There's this sense of wonder you get when looking at abandoned buildings. You try to imagine what these spaces were like when they were filled with busy workers trying to meet production targets. And why did they close?

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
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Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

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