Kamaishi Mine is ranked as the second best haikyo (ruin) in all of east Japan, according to one of the haikyo books I follow. Iron has been mined there since 1727, and Japan’s first blast furnace was built there in 1857. Production peaked in the 1970’s, with more than a million tons of ore coming out a year. In photos I’d seen it looked like a whole hillside of factory/mine buildings, though upon arrival it was clear the glory days were gone, with only a hillside of concrete foundations remaining.

A block of masonry stands before the factory’s hillside foundation

There’s not a lot more to say about this, really. We were driving a circuit loop of Iwate pefecture, and this was the second half of the day after Taro mine. It was gone. We hopped the fence and meandered some. I was with Mike, and he had a run-in with some guy walking the stepped foundations. I saw nobody. I entered a tunnel in the hillside briefly, but it didn’t go anywhere but the other side. Coming back down Mike shouted something at me from the car.

“Sit down on the steps!” or something like that.

I headed over. Turned out he was warning me about someone patrolling nearby. I didn’t see them.

Because the place was a ruin of a ruin, all I’ve got are a few shots of that.

This was the day before we went to Osarizawa Mine and the Matsuo Apartments.

Poised as some kind of memento in the open parking area.

Another Incan temple, once a mine.

Sweeping cloudy skies.

Concrete and trees.

Inside a tunnel that shot straight through the hill.

Tunnel mouth.

You can see all my haikyo explorations in the Ruins/Haikyo Gallery.