Ferry Crossing Channel

The ferry crossing to Ikeshima runs roughly 30 minutes from Kōnoura, on the Nishi-Sonogi Peninsula, to a port that was completed in 1958 before a single tonne of commercial coal had been raised. The port came first because the island needed a way to move everything, equipment, workers, coal, and the provisions for a self-contained community that would eventually number nearly 7,800 people at its 1970 peak. This photograph records the white and teal vessel operated by Saikai Engan Shōsen crossing the channel on the day's final run, its wake cutting bright across the deep blue water. Behind it, a red and white lattice communications tower rises above the forested ridge, with smaller masts stepping down toward the waterline. The scene is quiet and ordinary. It was never quiet or ordinary for most of the island's working life. Ikeshima Coal Mine began commercial production in 1959, the last new colliery to open in Japan. The coal it raised was a weakly-caking coking-blend raw material, low in sulphur and valued for its blendability; the field lay entirely beneath the seabed, with the deepest workings reaching about 650 metres below sea level. At the 1985 production peak, more than 1.5 million tonnes of coal were raised in a single year. Because the island was too small and too remote for conventional supply, Matsushima Coal Mining commissioned an on-island coal-fired power station and a seawater-desalination plant in 1967 to keep the community running. The mine closed on 29 November 2001, after 42 years of production and approximately 44.5 million tonnes of clean coal raised over the life of the operation. The ferry, running on the same crossing, is now one of the few regular reasons to make the trip.