Toilets

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 1/60 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A row of derelict toilets sits against a tiled wall. The tiles are cracked and discoloured. Pipework is exposed where fixtures have deteriorated. Dust coats every surface evenly. No fittings remain intact. The floor is visible beneath a layer of accumulated grime.

Edition

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In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Toilets
Series: Family School Fureai
Catalogue: FSF-027
Process: Giclée
Captured: 28 April 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 1/60 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Yubari, Hokkaido, Japan
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Yubari, Hokkaido, Japan

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The toilet block at Family School Fureai is a tiled room of cracked surfaces and exposed pipework. Dust covers the floor and fixtures in an even layer, the kind that settles slowly over years rather than weeks. Nothing has been removed or cleaned. The fittings have simply deteriorated where they stand. The building that contains this room is the former Yubari Municipal Asahi Elementary School, a reinforced-concrete three-storey structure built in 1975 on the demolished site of Yubari Daini (Second) Elementary School. It was purpose-built to consolidate three predecessor schools: Yubari Daini, Teibi, and Fukuzumi. Asahi Elementary opened on 1 April 1975 with 13 classes and 351 students. It closed on 31 March 1983, eight years later, merged into Yubari Elementary School as the city's population continued its long contraction following the closure of the coal mines. The building sat between phases for a period before Yubari Kanko Kaihatsu Co., Ltd., a third-sector tourism entity established in October 1994 with capital of 30 million yen and Yubari City's mayor as its representative director, converted it into a public lodging and group training facility operating as Family School Fureai. Classrooms were repurposed as guest rooms. The facility was the first in the company's portfolio, which would grow to include two hotels, a hot spring, and a ski resort. Family School Fureai ceased accepting guests in 2006, as Yubari City's fiscal crisis became public. The city had accumulated deficits of approximately 35.3 billion yen through a combination of mine closure remediation costs and a failed debt-funded tourism strategy. The tourism business account alone accounted for 18.6 billion yen of that figure, 53% of the total. Yubari Kanko Kaihatsu filed for bankruptcy on 2 April 2007 with total debt of 5.46 billion yen. Family School Fureai was not among the facilities transferred to the successor operator. The building has had no custodian since. This photograph was made in 2016. The gymnasium roof collapsed under snow accumulation in early 2021. The main building continues to deteriorate.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The toilet block at Family School Fureai sits inside what was once Yubari Municipal Asahi Elementary School, a reinforced-concrete three-storey building constructed in 1975 to consolidate three predecessor schools. Asahi closed in 1983 after just eight years, its student numbers hollowed out by the collapse of the coal industry. A decade later the building reopened as a public lodging facility operated by Yubari Kanko Kaihatsu Co., Ltd., a city-backed tourism entity. That venture ended in bankruptcy in 2007. Cracked tiles and exposed pipework are what remain in 2016.

Brett Patman

The series

Family School Fureai

2016 · 30 photographs

Family School Fureai stands on a hillside at the northern end of Yubari in Hokkaido. The building opened on 1 April 1975 as Asahi Elementary School, a new three-storey reinforced-concrete structure built on the site of the demolished wooden Yubari Second Elementary (Daini). It consolidated three local schools - Daini, Fukuzumi and Teibi - that had lost most of their students as Yubari's coal industry shrank. By the early 1980s enrolment had collapsed; the school closed on 31 March 1983 after just eight years. The building stayed empty until Yubari City's tourism third-sector firm Yubari Kanko Kaihatsu, established October 1994, repurposed it as the Family School Fureai public dormitory. In June 2006 Yubari City announced its fiscal collapse; the city formally entered financial reconstruction status on 6 March 2007 and YKK ceased trading 31 March 2007 with ¥5.46 billion of debt. The building has sat empty since. Inside there is no graffiti - only kanji on the chalkboards. Deer and foxes use it now.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.