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Winding Tower of Shime Coal Mine in Shime, Japan
Japan is home to some of the world’s coolest abandoned places, many industrial in origin, much loved and enjoyed by dedicated enthusiasts. One of the lesser-known fan favorites is the Winding Tower of the Shime Coal Mine, located a little off Fukuoka City in southern Japan. The only coal mine in Japanese history to have been government-owned for the entirety of its operation, the Shime Industrial Factory was active from 1889 to 1964, with its vertical mine shaft or “winding tower” built in 1943 during the Pacific War. It’s the only surviving winding tower in Japan today, and the Japanese government designated it as an important Tangible Cultural Property in 2009 and redeveloped the area around it into an athletic park. Mining shafts of this kind are extremely rare even outside Japan, found only in Blegny, Belgium, and Fushun, China. Standing at eight stories, Shime’s tower contained a massive lift that carried the workers and ton after ton of coal up and down, wound up by the thousand-horsepower motor, hardly ever resting. In the early 2010s, the Winding Tower went viral and came to be known on the internet as the Anti-Zombie Fortress, due to its unique quasi-Brutalist design. Though this whimsical moniker did not quite catch on in Japan, much less in Shime, the tower would surely provide a haven of refuge should a Romeroesque apocalypse ever come to pass.
Japan is home to some of the world’s coolest abandoned places, many industrial in origin, much loved and enjoyed by dedicated enthusiasts. One of the lesser-known fan favorites is the Winding Tower of the Shime Coal Mine, located a little off Fukuoka City in southern Japan.
The only coal mine in Japanese history to have been government-owned for the entirety of its operation, the Shime Industrial Factory was active from 1889 to 1964, with its vertical mine shaft or “winding tower” built in 1943 during the Pacific War. It’s the only surviving winding tower in Japan today, and the Japanese government designated it as an important Tangible Cultural Property in 2009 and redeveloped the area around it into an athletic park.
Mining shafts of this kind are extremely rare even outside Japan, found only in Blegny, Belgium, and Fushun, China. Standing at eight stories, Shime’s tower contained a massive lift that carried the workers and ton after ton of coal up and down, wound up by the thousand-horsepower motor, hardly ever resting.
In the early 2010s, the Winding Tower went viral and came to be known on the internet as the Anti-Zombie Fortress, due to its unique quasi-Brutalist design. Though this whimsical moniker did not quite catch on in Japan, much less in Shime, the tower would surely provide a haven of refuge should a Romeroesque apocalypse ever come to pass.
