Spider on Web

At the centre of a complete orb web, a spider holds its position. Its abdomen is banded yellow and blue; its legs, braced along the radial threads, carry bands of yellow and black. The web itself is intact, every spoke running clean to the outer frame, the spiral catching the light in even steps. A single fleck of white detritus has snagged near the upper left. Behind it all, the island's foliage falls away into blur, dark green and muted brown. Ikeshima is a small island in the Gotō Sea, about 7 kilometres off the Nishi-Sonogi Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture. Its coal mine was the last new colliery sunk in Japan, beginning commercial output in 1959 and working on until 29 November 2001, when it closed as the country's last large-scale underground coal operation. Over roughly 42 years of production, the mine raised approximately 44.5 million tonnes of clean coal from seams lying entirely beneath the seabed, the deepest workings reaching around 650 metres below sea level. At its peak in 1970, around 7,770 people lived on an island just over a kilometre square. The mine employed 1,451 regular workers in fiscal year 1976 alone. When the closure came, about 2,500 employees were dismissed and most residents left. By 2021 the population had fallen to 111, mostly retired miners and their relatives. The photograph was made in 2026, in the year the island's coal-mine experience facility is scheduled to close for good, on a council decision about maintenance costs and the ages of the five former-miner guides. Much of the housing and the old shopping street stand disused. The cats, and the spiders, and the foliage have been filling the gaps for more than two decades.