Theater Hall

When crude oil is put into a large flat kettle and heat is applied beneath, the vapor of petroleum rises and is cooled by the kettle covering it, allowing kerosene to come out from the outlet. In the early Meiji era, the Garameki area's Magara family manufactured kerosene for sale using ranbiki kettles to extract it from crude oil they had mined.

Relying on the slight amount of natural light coming into the well from the entrance, they dug with a pickaxe and other equipment like the one shown on display. The workers would take turns on shifts changing every so often, but sometimes the workers would fall unconscious due to lack of oxygen in between member changes. Diggers wore a tin Ogasa helmet, which not only protected their heads from falling objects, but also reflected a small amount of light from above.

In the morning when gas had accumulated inside of the well, a large number of people stepped on Tatara to send a large amount of air into the well to ventilate it. This work was done by close family members and relatives, as it is a very dangerous task that is always life threatening. In addition, Wind Toyo, which extends from Tatara towards the bottom of the mine, was used not only for sending air in, but also used to communicate with the digger.

The collected crude oil was mainly carried by women. They carried barrels containing crude oil on their backs toward the boat yard on the Nodai River. From the boat yard, the barrels of oils were shipped by oil boats down the Nodai, Koagano, and Shinano rivers to the refineries in Nippocho and Niigata.

One end of a walking beam moved like a seesaw right above the wellhead from where the cutting edge was hung down with a wire rope, and the vertical movement of the machine crushed the bottom of the well while digging. A steam engine was used to power the walking beam, but it was gradually replaced by the electric motor by the end of the Meiji era.

In the middle of the Meiji era, collected crude oil was carried mainly by women to the oil collection stations or the piers of oil boats. You can easily imagine how hard a task this was for them. Around 1935, Nakano Kogyo mainly transported oil using the pipeline they laid and pumped oil to Yashiroda Station and a pier on the Shinano River. From Yashiroda Station, oil was sent to the refineries in Nagaoka and Kashiwazaki by an oil tank car. From the pier on the Shinano River, it was sent by oil boat to the refinery in Niigata.

The town of Niitsu was lively, with mornings starting with the rattling sound of a large eight-wheeled vehicles. In addition, a train line for oil loading was laid on the premises of Niitsu Station which opened in 1897. The town of Niitsu has also become known as a "railroad town". On the other hand, refineries lined the Garameki and Takitani areas, and residents complained about smoke damage, such as trees dying from smoke containing sulfur dioxide gas being emitted from the refineries’ chimneys.

In the early Showa era, this kind of insect trap was common in Japan. In addition, Kusouzu bamboo tubes are also on display. If you put oil in this bamboo tube and swing it around while walking in the paddy field, oil will come out from a small hole. Afterwards, hitting the rice plants with a stick removed pests such as leafhoppers that attach to the rice plants. It is a tool that could exterminated pests by making them fall to the surface of the water and die as they are unable to fly due to oil attached on their body.

At the Niitsu oil field, it was successfully introduced for the first time at the Kumazawa mine in 1899, and created a large fountain that produced over 21 kiloliters per day. As a result, the Kumazawa mine was drilled by many oil companies and reached a development rush. In 1909, the total oil production of the Niitsu oil field reached 120,000 KL per year, and the town of Niitsu was booming with an unprecedented "oil economy." Later, rotary excavators were introduced to allow deeper and faster excavations. On the wall behind the display shelves, various steel pipes and other tools used for machine digging for different purposes are shown. On the display stand in the foreground, various bits of the rotary excavator used at that time are shown.

The Nakano family started their oil business after acquiring the rights to mine oil in 1804. Nakano Kanichi started by hand digging in 1874, but he kept failing and had a difficult time. However, he succeeded through strong will and passion, becoming a major oil producer to NihonOil and Houden Oil, furthermore, becoming one of Japan’s top five business conglomerates. His achievements have been handed down to posterity. In 1996, due to the various changes in circumstances, the Maruizumi oil corporation of the Nakano family which continued to produce oil until they had become the last oil collecting company in the industry, stopped oil collection, a practice they had previously continued for around 200 years. In 2018, the "Nitsu Oilfield Kanazu Mining Site" was designated as a historic site by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The area designated as a historic site has preserved the entire oil production system, including oil collection tanks, draining tanks, pump engine, oil wells, turrets, transfer machines, and tension lines. This kind of collection of sites that preserves the heritage of the oil industry is only found here at the "Niitsu Oilfield Kanazu Mining Site". If you have time, please stroll the "Heritage Tour" walking course.