PEOPLE

Onozaki's grandfather was Ittoku Onozaki, the official photographer of the Ashio Copper Mine in the Meiji period. Onozaki, as a researcher, has been recovering Ittoku's photographs that have been offered to him since his student days.　In his work, he lives for ‘iron’, not ‘copper’, and worked at Kamaishi Mine in Iwate Prefecture of Nitetsu Mining Co., Ltd., where he contributed to making the iron category a World Heritage Site as an honourary advisor to Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd. He is currently a senior researcher at the Industrial Heritage Information Centre, where he disseminates information on cultural heritage.

A large number of photographs of the Furukawa Ashio Copper Mine, one of the companies that led the modernisation of Japan, are in the collection and are being digitally documented one by one. The database was created and opened to the public in 2022, focusing on the ‘rock drill’ and ‘aerial cableway’, which were the first industrial machines domestically produced in Japan at Ashio; ‘hydroelectric power generation’ and ‘electric railway’ in 2023; and the ‘mining damage prevention work’ in 2024. The Industrial Heritage Information Centre has been reporting on the background and significance of the project.

--- You are currently contributing as a senior researcher to the Information Centre for Industrial Heritage, but how did you become involved with the Information Centre in the first place? Can you also tell us about your encounter with Koko Kato, Director of the Information Centre?

ONOZAKI: I first met Ms. Kato in 1999 when she was publishing her book ‘Industrial Heritage’ for the Nikkei newspaper. Since then, we have had long-standing exchanges related to industrial heritage.

In 2013, I participated in the National Conference on Industrial Heritage (the first Tokyo Conference) and in 2014 in the International Conference on Industrial Heritage (at Hotel Okura), where preparations for the registration of Sites of Meiji Japan's Industrial Revolution as a UNESCO Heritage Site began under Ms. Kato, with industry, government and academia working in unison.

So, I was assigned to cooperate with then-Cabinet Counsellor Kato as a member of the Industrial Project Team and Steel Industry Working Group of the Council of Experts.

Then, in 2015, the Industrial Heritage Information Centre was established after approval for registration as a UNESCO cultural heritage site, and since then I have been in charge of guide recruitment, training, data collection and various surveys as a chief researcher.

--- After graduating from university, you joined Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd., where you served as director and representative director of Kamaishi Mine Co., Ltd., and are currently an honorary advisor to Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd. What triggered your interest in your field of expertise, iron and steel?　And have you always had an interest in modern heritage?

Onozaki: I was born and raised in the Furukawa Imperial Photo Studio in a copper mining town that was said to be the best in the East, and I am someone who was immersed in the mining industry. I was encouraged by the chief professor of my university to join Nittetsu Mining Co., Ltd. as a research worker dealing with the mining resources of Nippon Steel Corporation, and it was with a sense of destiny and ambition that I entered the company.

I joined the company in 1957 and worked hard for one company until 2000, experiencing the post-war industrial recovery, the introduction of technology, the period of rapid growth, the bursting of the bubble economy and the energy revolution. During that time, the primary industry sank and mines and coal mines closed one after another. It was an era of scrap and build.

I met Ms. Kato at a time when these industrial heritage sites were being scrapped one after another. Since then, activities have started to preserve the footprints of the people who were active in this period, to pass them on and to contribute to the development of the region. It was in the middle of this whirlwind that I decided to take action, and first of all, I decided to take the lead in preserving the heritage of Kamaishi as a task that I could do. In fact, Ashio was also in the forefront of this project.

--- Kamaishi is home to the “Hashino Iron Mine,” a particularly important component part of the Sites of Meiji Japan’s Industrial Revolution, but was Mr. Onozaki also involved when the area was being prepared for World Heritage listing?

Onozaki: I am involved to the extent that I can: in 1957, the year I joined the company, there was a 100th anniversary, and I met the Hashino blast furnace for the first time during my practical training. It is rare in the world that ruins of a blast furnace from that era still remain. When I was president of Kamaishi, I often took visitors to the site. I am proud that our own facilities remain as a World Heritage Site.