The history of the Miike coal mine

The discovery of coal goes back to the Muromachi era. Records exist of coal being sold as fuel for salt production mainly in the Setouchi Area from the late Edo era. The Miike Coal Mine became directly controled by the Meiji government in the early Meiji era. After that, the Miike Coal Mine was largely developed by introducing modern methods, and became the largest coal mine in the country. In 1875, a French engineer, Emile T. Mouchet, investigated the Miike Coal Mine, and found that the mine was a promising one with high-quality coal from a promising coal layer. Therefore, the government decided to develop the Miike Coal Mine full-scale from 1876 in order to export coal to Shanghai as fuel for foreign ships and to earn foreign currency. The government sent a British engineer, Frederic A. Potter, to promote development by introducing new technology. With help from foreign engineers, the Miike Coal Mine established early stages of modernization following the Takashima Coal Mine in Nagasaki Prefecture. The appointment of Takuma Dan, who studied the latest mining technology available at the time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, had a great impact on the development of the Miike Coal Mine after that. When the Miike Coal Mine was privatized, it welcomed Takuma as its managing executive and decided to leave all matters related to Miike Coal Mine to his direction. The Kattachi Pit, one of the major pits during the mid to end of Meiji era, was continuously having trouble with groundwater while mining, and the future of the Miike Coal Mine did not look promising at all. Takuma introduced a cutting-edge-at-that-time British Davey’s pump in 1893 and succeeded in removing groundwater. He established the basis for wider development of the Miike Coal Mine. The pump introduced at the Kattachi Pit was such a large scale one that it was mentioned in a British document as the world’s largest drain pump. The Miyanohara Pit and the Manda Pit were the main pits follwing the Kattachi Pit. The Miyanohara Pit had its peak during the late Meiji and Taisho eras, whereas the Manda Pit had its peak during the Taisho and early Showa eras. Because Miyanohara Pit was the closest pithead from the Miike Shujikan prison, established in 1883, many prisoners were used as its labor. The Manda Pit was opened approximately 1.5km south of the Miyanohara Pit and Mitsui put a full-scale effort into development of the Manda Pit to establish it as the model of coal mines in Japan. The Manda Pit consisted of the No. 1 Shaft, at which excavation began in 1897 and was completed in 1902, and the No. 2 Shaft Pit, at which excavation began in 1898 and was completed in 1908. While the Manda Pit was at its peak as Japan’s largest vertical shaft pit, its facilities and machinery were enhanced from the Taisho to Showa eras and its coal output was increasing. However, because the mining site became increasingly distant and due to the worsening transport efficiency inside the pit, it closed in 1951.
The main pits, opened after the closure of the Manda Pit, were the Yotsuyama Pit, the Mikawa Pit and the Ariake Pit. Although these pits played a great role in the postwar reconstruction process, the industry was struggling because of industrial disputes and explosions as well as the energy revolution from coal to oil. The industry faced additional hardships due to the widening gap in prices between imported coal and domestic coal. The production system was gradually reduced in size and the Miike Coal Mine finally closed in March 1997 after a long history as a modern coal mine with 108 years of Mitsui management and after 124 years of being state owned.

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