Aso Kamimio Coal Pit (Closed in 1964) Seen from the West or the Bank of the Kama River around 1899
January 1967

Meiji Sanju Ninen Koro Seiho Kamagawa Tsutsumi kara Mita Aso Kamimio Tanko (Showa Sanju Kunen Haizan)
[Aso Kamimio Coal Pit (Closed in 1964) Seen from the West or the Bank of the Kama River around 1899]
38.2 x 54.2 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

This is the first pit which my family and I moved to.
In September of 1894, this coal pit started mining operations (shibahaguri), and it was the cash cow of Mr. Takichi Aso along with his San-nai Coal Pit opened in 1896.
Every mine owner worried about coal transportation. From this pit, ponies transported coal for about three kilometers to Yoshio [present Iizuka City] on a double track railway. A pony could pull seven mine cars loaded with a little more than 2.5 tons of coal. It is said that about 30 mine-car-loads of coal was needed to fill an 8-ton coal car. At San-nai Coal Pit, Mr. Niino from Okuma Town used dozens of ponies for coal transportation, and the pit was called Basha Naya (a barn for ponies and carriages).
In 1899, Mitsui Yamano Coal Pit [in present Kama City] laid a two-kilometer-long railway to Kamimio for pony-drawn mine cars. This coal pit shared this railway from Kamimio to Yoshio with Kamimio Coal Pit. In 1903, the Kyushu Tetsudo Railway Company started their railway service in this area and coal mines stopped using ponies for coal transportation.

Text at the Bottom Left
Old coal mines sometimes went bankrupt because of the huge expenses from big accidents, bad conditions in coal transportation, and excessive groundwater in the mines. The low grade of coal and inefficient thin coal seams were the secondary causes.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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