Statue and Headframe

At the entrance to Ikeshima Coal Mine's surface plant, a bronze figure stands on a dark concrete plinth, one arm raised above a circular planter overtaken by dry weeds and low shrubs. Behind it, a rusted angular steel headframe climbs above the winding house, its upper windows broken and the interiors showing rust throughout. A corrugated metal structure leans to the right. The whole surface operation, shafts, hoist house, headframe, washery and conveyors, was compressed onto an island of about 1.08 km², because the coalfield it served lay entirely beneath the seabed. Ikeshima Coal Mine began commercial output in 1959, the last new colliery to open in Japan. Offshore boring from 1948 had confirmed coal beneath the island and the surrounding seabed; development of the mine followed in the early 1950s, with the first coal reached in September 1955. The mine operated as an undersea colliery throughout its life, with the deepest workings reaching about 650 metres below sea level. The first vertical shaft was completed in 1967, the second in 1981. From 1974 the principal working area shifted to the Hikishima zone, about 4 to 5 km west, where seams ran about 120 million tonnes recoverable. Peak production came in 1985, when more than 1.5 million tonnes of coal were raised. Matsushima Coal Mining Co., a subsidiary of what is now Mitsui Matsushima Holdings, operated the mine from its opening through to closure. The coal was a weakly-caking raw-material grade, low in sulphur, valued for blending. Approximately 44.54 million tonnes of clean coal were produced over the mine's working life. The last descent was made on 28 November 2001. The mine closed the following day, 29 November 2001, after about 42 years of production. The headframe, winding house and surface plant that appear in this photograph from 2026 are what that working life left behind.