The Horonai coal mine is the oldest mine of the Ishikari coalfield of the Sorachi mining region on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Since its privatisation in 1889, the mine came under the management of the Hokutan company until its closure in 1989.
The Startup
In 1868, carpenter Kimura Kichitarō discovered coal in Horonai, Mikasa. However, it took another 6 years before Chōjūrō Hayakawa a citizen of Sapporo, delivered the first coal to the colonization commission. The local government took action, and the mining engineersBenjamin Smith Lyman and Takeaki Enomoto welded an investigation. Their findings were satisfactory, and the Meiji government decided to build in Horonai the first coal mine of the Ishikari coal basin. The construction of the mine was led by the American engineer L.C.E. Goujot and his disciple Edward Parry. The first adit, the Daikōdō was opened in 1879. It was followed by the opening of the Takinosawa adit and Honsawa adit in 1882, which meant the start of the coal production. In the year 1882, the railway of Horonai was completed, the third railway of the Japanese empire connecting the mine with the Otaru harbor. Also, the government decided to build the prison of sorachi in Mikasa. Thus the problem of overcrowded prisons as well as the problem of insufficient labour power in the mine were solved. Between 1883 and 1894, this prison provided an average of 720 prison miners a year, making up 80 percent of the total workforce.
Privatisation
In 1889, the Meiji government sold off the mine and its railways to, Hori Motoi, who founded the Hokkaido Colliery and Railway Company, abbreviated as Hokutan. Due to the tensions with Russia, Japan nationalised its railways again in 1906, and the company name changed into the Hokkaidō Coal and Steamship Company. In 1913, after disappointing investments in its steel plant, in Muroran, the conglomerate Mitsui bought itself into the management of Hokutan. Along with the property, Hokutan also bought the rights for prison labor, so the miners mostly consisted of prisoners. It continued until 1894, when the Meiji government under the pressure of the public opinion led by Protestant prison director Ōinoue Terusaki, decided on the abolition of prison labour. The prisoners were substituted by other forms of recruitment as that of subcontractors and direct recruitment as well as a thorough mechanization. In 1938, the Tokiwakō, two inclined shafts were mined. Along these the coal was transported towards the coal preparation plant. In 1952, these shafts were equipped with conveyor belts. When in 1967, the Horonai mine merged with the Shin-Horonai mine, these belts transported coal from a depth of 520 meters, over a distance of 2.720 meters towards the plant. The merged Hokutan Horonai mine was equipped with two modern deep shafts and used drum cutters since 1968, which made it one of the most modern mines of Japan.
Closure
In the 70's the Horonai mine faced several mine accidents, and thus became unprofitable. In November 1975, a gas explosion took 13 lives and caused an underground fire that had to be extinguished by pouring 4 billion liters of water into the mine. The extinguishing and subsequent repairs dragged on for two years and left the mine with a debt of 120 billion yen and on the verge of bankruptcy. As a final attempt, the parent company was in 1978 split into the departments of Horonai, Sorachi, Mayachi and Yubari. These subsidiaries were accumulating losses and the bank of the parent company, Mitsui, was no longer willing to cover these losses. Again, on November 27, 1977 another deadly gas explosion with more than 15 victims occurred in Horonai, and its financial situation worsened. As a result, the local government had to buy up its properties, such as the mining community and its facilities, in order to finance its closure.
Adaptive Reuse
Due to its difficult financial situation Hokutan could not even clean up its own properties. Ultimately, only the steel structures have been erased, but the concrete structures remained standing in the landscape. The city of Mikasa built a railway museum on the access road to the mining site. However, this museum could not replace the income from the mining activities, and the city balanced on the verge of bankruptcy. These events forced the regional government of Sorachi to adjust its regeneration policy. So it proclaimed in 1998 the "Law for the Examination of Mining Heritage," which supported the enhancement of regional material and immaterial heritage. In response to it, professor Hirotaka Yoshioka promoted the valorisation of the mining heritage of Mikasa by organizing heritage walks at the site of the mine Horonai, which resulted in the establishment of the landscape park of the coal mine Horonai.
