Pithead bath at Ikeshima Coal Mine, a drainage channel down the tiled floor between two sunken concrete baths.
Pithead bath at Ikeshima Coal Mine, a drainage channel down the tiled floor between two sunken concrete baths.

Yokuso

Provenance

Camera
Nikon F100
Film
Fujifilm Velvia 50 · 35mm · ISO 50
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A drainage channel running down the centre of a tiled floor. A curved concrete bath sunk into the floor on each side. Wash basins along the walls beyond. Square columns carrying pipework. A single light fitting hanging from the ceiling. Grey lockers lit by the windows at the far end.

Edition
Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD
Size
Type
Colour
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In situ

Interior of the communal bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, showing a central drainage channel between two U-shaped concrete baths, lit by golden light from square windows at the far end.Interior of the communal bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, showing a central drainage channel between two U-shaped concrete baths, lit by golden light from square windows at the far end.Interior of the communal bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, showing a central drainage channel between two U-shaped concrete baths, lit by golden light from square windows at the far end.Interior of the communal bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, showing a central drainage channel between two U-shaped concrete baths, lit by golden light from square windows at the far end.Interior of the communal bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, showing a central drainage channel between two U-shaped concrete baths, lit by golden light from square windows at the far end.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Yokuso
Series
Ikeshima
Catalogue
IKE-036
Process
Giclée
Captured
17 January 2026
Camera
Nikon F100
Film
Fujifilm Velvia 50
Format
35mm
Film ISO
50
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Location
Ikeshima, Nagasaki, Japan
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
02 LOCATION

Ikeshima, Nagasaki, Japan

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The pithead bath in the No. 2 Shaft office building at Ikeshima Coal Mine, seen straight down the drainage channel that splits the tiled floor, with a curved concrete bath sunk into the floor on either side and the wash basins beyond. Square columns carry the pipework overhead, a single light fitting hangs from the ceiling, and the windows at the far end throw their light onto a bank of grey lockers. A mine worker's trip from this room to the coalface took 41 to 53 minutes: down the shaft, onto the man-car at minus 650 m, along the man-belts, then on foot. The bath was where the return journey ended.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The pithead bath in the No. 2 Shaft office building at Ikeshima Coal Mine, seen straight down the drainage channel that splits the tiled floor, with a curved concrete bath sunk into the floor on either side and the wash basins beyond. Square columns carry the pipework overhead, a single light fitting hangs from the ceiling, and the windows at the far end throw their light onto a bank of grey lockers.

Brett Patman

Ikeshima

The series

Ikeshima

1959 to 2001 · 54 photographs

Ikeshima Coal Mine operated beneath the seabed off Nagasaki from 1959 until 29 November 2001, making it the last new coal mine to open in Japan and the last large-scale underground colliery to close. At its 1970 peak the island held 7,770 residents on a 0.86 km² rock in the Gotō Sea, housed in company-built concrete towers above a mine that reached 650 m below sea level.

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.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM IKESHIMA

53 other prints in this series

All prints
Dim office at Ikeshima Coal Mine, a white hard hat and a cup on two desks below a buckled venetian blind.
Hard Hat$100.00
View from an apartment window in Ikeshima-machi, utility pole and wires above silver grass with the Matsushima power station chimney across the sea.
Apartment Window$100.00
Window in the No. 2 Shaft office at Ikeshima Coal Mine, glass gone and a creeper hanging in over the sill above the sea.
Ocean Outlook$100.00
Pithead bath in the No. 2 Shaft office at Ikeshima Coal Mine, concrete troughs on a tiled floor with a vent fan on the far wall.
Pithead Bath$100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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