michael john grist

Ashiodozan Mining Town in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture is infamous in Japanese history as a site of extreme environmental damage- so much so the town was mostly abandoned 40 years ago, the mines and factory shut down, and new standards in environmental care called for at the highest national levels. It had been a copper mining and processing town for over 400 years, at its peak supplying over a third of Japan’s entire copper supply, in the process though poisoning the nearby mountains with sulfurous acid gas from the plant’s smelters. Now it’s a creaking conglomeration of fading facilities- a power station, the factory, numerous barricaded mines, a train station, a temple, a school, and a small town of tumble-down wooden apartments, haunted only by a few aged holdovers with nowhere else to go.

The abandoned train yard, with 3 old white sulfuric acid tanks on the hill to the left, and the red-boned skeleton of the main factory in the distance.

Ashio takes its name from a probably apocryphal story: one day a monk was walking in the mountains and saw a rat carrying rice in its mouth. Surprised at this odd sight the monk grabbed the creature, tied a string to its foot, and followed it. It led him up to the foot of a mountain, where he found houses, set up a temple, and got the town going. The original kanji for Ashio- 足緒- means ’string foot’.

So Ashio was a sleepy mountain-temple village, then sometime in the 16th century copper was discovered. The Tokugawa Shogunate took control of the area, started up the first of many mines, and ramped up production. Ashio thrived, selling copper on to make the roofs for the Toshogu Shrine, the Edo Castle and the Kaneiji Temple in Ueno, as well as to mint copper coins and sell raw copper overseas.

Ashio- also known as the ”town of 1,000 houses.’

Miners of Ashio- graphic borrowed from my main source site on Ashio- ashiodozan.com

In the early 20th century the mining process was modernized and electrified, and production shot through the roof. The population of the village burgeoned to 39,000- a number I find very difficult to imagine living in that tight river valley. Soon after the second World War though production slowed down, as the environmental damage grew and the copper reserves dwindled. Finally the last of the mines were shut down in 1973.

Ashio smelters around the main factory complex.

I went to this haikyo with Su Young- we’d hoped to stay in Ashiodozan (’Ashio copper mountains’) itself, or Mato- the actual terminus station of the Keikoku Watarase valley train line, but the few available ryokan (traditional Japanese inns) up there had no spaces available. So we over-nighted at the base of the line, in a town called Kiryu in Gunma, in a regular travel hotel.

The next day we were up early and off to the station. We were surprised to be met on the platform with a gaggle of teenage school-kids, seemingly off for some sporting event. We wondered whether Ashio was going to be quite as deserted as we’d expected, but it turned out we had nothing to fear- the kids all got off after a few stops. After about 20 minutes we were the only ones left on the small caboose.

Mountains brown with dead grass rolled by us on either side, and we took turns shifting in our facing seats to capture the best views up and down the valley. At each small station a few workers were strapping up Christmas lights- an attraction the train conductor came down the aisle and handed us flyers for. It seemed at once a little desperate- for tourists, for attention, for some investment, but mostly just sweet. I don’t think they expected it to be a big draw- they just liked to do it.

We got off at the terminus in Mato, and Su Young wasted no time setting us up with fresh maps and renting bicycles from the lone warden at the station. He seemed pleased to see us, and answered all our questions with smiles and good humor.

“Can we go inside the mines?” Smiling- Oh no, no… “Can we go inside the abandoned train station?” -No, no, but you can take pictures from outside, sure. “How about the factory?” Nodding – Yes yes, of course, you can see the factory through the fence.

We left our bags with him and took to the road on our bikes, clutching sheafs of hand-drawn maps and struggling to figure out the oddly-organized gears on our new bicycles.

Scarcely 200 meters along we stumbled on our first find, just off the road were two industrial relics- some kind of hauling machinery and a rusted silo.

Not fenced off, with no warning signs. On some Ashio English tourist information I had it said- ‘Please explore our town like a museum, please take lots of photographs’. So we did.

Of course we got excited and climbed up inside them immediately, there were still sacks of some mineral- maybe lime- in the top of one:

And some bits of rusted old machinery.

Heavy duty bike chain.

Pulley.

After that we climbed down, got back on our bikes, and headed off up the road towards the motherlode. I’ll post about that in the next few days.

The motherlode- factory and smelter in the distance, against pollution-balded mountains.

CONTENTS

Ashiodozan Mining Town- 1. History and Relics

Ashiodozan Mining Town- 2. Shrine and Apartments

Ashiodozan Mining Town- 3. Power Hub and Mine Complex

Ashiodozan Mining Town- 4. Train Station and Factory

FACTFILE

Location – Ashiodozan, Tochigi.

Entry - It takes 4 or 5 hours to get to Ashio from Tokyo, so staying overnight is probably advised. To get a place in a ryokan in Ashio, book well in advance, and speak good Japanese. Otherwise you can easily stay in a Toyoku Inn or other cheap hotel in Kiryu.

Highlights – The empty train on the way up, Christmas lights, ease of renting bikes, the friendly guy.

RUINS / HAIKYO

You can see all MJG’s Ruins / Haikyo explorations here:

Military

7 Photos

Theme Parks

7 Photos

Hospitals

4 Photos

Apartments, Schools

3 Photos

Industry

5 Photos

Hotels, Restaurants

5 Photos

Museums, Bowling, Vaults

2 Photos

Love Hotels, Soaplands

6 Photos