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 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

Provenance

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

Long concrete troughs down the length of a tiled floor. A row of rusted basins with taps along the right wall. A vent fan centred on the far wall above the windows. A concrete column carrying overhead pipework. Two tall metal cabinets between the window bays. A drainage channel along the edge of the troughs.

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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Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.
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In situ

Interior of the miners' bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with a vent fan above the far windows, concrete washing troughs across the tiled floor, and a rusted spigot trough along the right wall.Interior of the miners' bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with a vent fan above the far windows, concrete washing troughs across the tiled floor, and a rusted spigot trough along the right wall.Interior of the miners' bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with a vent fan above the far windows, concrete washing troughs across the tiled floor, and a rusted spigot trough along the right wall.Interior of the miners' bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with a vent fan above the far windows, concrete washing troughs across the tiled floor, and a rusted spigot trough along the right wall.Interior of the miners' bathhouse at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with a vent fan above the far windows, concrete washing troughs across the tiled floor, and a rusted spigot trough along the right wall.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Pithead Bath
Series
Ikeshima
Catalogue
IKE-038
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, where mine workers washed the coal off at the end of every shift, a few steps from the cage that had brought them up. Long concrete troughs run the length of the tiled floor, a row of rusted basins with their taps still fitted lines the right-hand wall, and a vent fan sits high on the far wall above the windows. A concrete column carries the overhead pipework, two tall metal cabinets stand between the window bays, and a drainage channel drops away along the edge of the troughs. Fresh water was so scarce on the island that the water drained from this bath was collected, desalinated and sent back to the washery to clean the coal.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The pithead bath in the No. 2 Shaft office building at Ikeshima Coal Mine, where mine workers washed the coal off at the end of every shift, a few steps from the cage that had brought them up. Long concrete troughs run the length of the tiled floor, a row of rusted basins with their taps still fitted lines the right-hand wall, and a vent fan sits high on the far wall above the windows.

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
Ikeshima Coal-Fired Power Station, white chimney above the boiler house and turbine hall seen across silver grass.
Power Station$100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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