Miyaura Sekitan Memorial Park 宮浦石炭記念公園

Official explanation

The Miyaura Pit, which opened in 1888, was Miike Coal Mine’s primary pit until 1968. It produced approximately 40 million tonnes of coal and was the mine’s longest operating pit. An incline shaft replaced the original vertical shaft in 1924, allowing the coal seam at the end of the fault to be mined. The work was hard and dangerous. Korean and Chinese laborers were made to work in the mine, along with prisoners of war from Australia, the United States, and other countries.

The site is now a park. The train, platform, and mouth of the incline shaft have been preserved. The brick chimney built in 1888 stands 31.2 meters tall, with a diameter ranging from 2.9 meters at the top to 4.3 meters at the base. The chimney was designated a National Tangible Cultural Property in 1998. The park’s metasequoia trees are the same species as the trees that, after millions of years of fossilization, became the coal taken from the mine.

Read the full explanation

The rail lines below the park were some of the first lines laid in 1891 for the old Miike Coal Railway. Beyond them stand factories owned by Mitsui Chemicals, part of Mitsui Group, which has owned Miike Coal Mine since 1889.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.