Wash House Basins

The wash house inside the main mine building on Ikeshima Coal Mine holds a row of corroded rectangular basins running along the right wall, each with its own tap. A curved yellow-and-green trough sits in the left foreground above small white floor tiles. Pipes track the ceiling. The fittings are intact and in place, though corrosion has worked steadily across every surface since the building last saw regular use. Ikeshima Coal Mine operated from 1959 until 29 November 2001, producing approximately 44.5 million tonnes of clean coal over its working life. At its 1985 peak the mine raised more than 1.5 million tonnes in a single year, and through the late 1970s into the 1990s it held a steady output of around 1.2 million tonnes annually. The entire worked field lay beneath the seabed, with faces reaching about 650 metres below sea level. From the mid-1970s the principal working area extended west to the islet of Hikishima, roughly 4 to 5 kilometres from the island. High-speed personnel trains carried miners from the No.2 vertical shaft down to the working level and along runs of more than 5 kilometres to the coal faces. The island ran its own coal-fired power station and a seawater-desalination plant, both commissioned in 1967, a necessity for a community living entirely offshore. Company-built reinforced-concrete apartment blocks housed the workforce and their families; shared laundry facilities with hot-water supply were part of the standard provision. The island population reached a peak of 7,770 in 1970. When the mine closed, about 2,500 employees were dismissed. Most residents left over the years that followed. The wash house, the basins, the trough and the pipes remain where they were left on the last shift.