Side Facade

The building in this photograph is a product of two forces that shaped Yubari, Hokkaido, in equal measure: the coal economy that built it and the climate that has been taking it apart ever since. Timber-frame construction clad in painted panels is the dominant building type across Yubari's residential and commercial areas. Much of it went up between the 1920s and 1960s, when the city's population was growing rapidly toward its peak of approximately 107,972 residents in the 1960 national census. Hokkaido coal powered a significant share of Japan's industrial output through that era, and Yubari sat at the centre of the Sorachi coalfield, with between 24 and 30 mines operating at the city's mid-century high. The industry's decline was rapid. Japan's energy policy shifted from coal to oil after 1960. Mine closures followed across the decade and into the 1970s and 1980s. The last coal mine in Yubari, Mitsubishi Minami-Oyubari Mine, closed on 30 March 1990. By the 1990 census, the population had fallen to 20,969. A tourism pivot in the 1980s failed to replace the lost economic base, and on 6 March 2007, Yubari filed for fiscal rehabilitation carrying a debt of approximately 35.3 billion yen, becoming the only city in modern Japan to do so. The buildings left behind face Hokkaido winters without heating, without maintenance, and without anyone to manage the snow load that accumulates on their roofs each year. In occupied structures, that load is managed. In unoccupied ones, it presses down through the winter months, driving moisture into wall cavities and accelerating the separation of paint from surface. Each freeze-thaw cycle lifts a little more. This photograph, made in 2016, records the side facade of one such structure. The paint has lifted and faded unevenly. The grey sky above offers no particular drama. The damage is ordinary, cumulative, and ongoing.