Umanojo Seki (関　右馬允 1888–1973)

The man who solved the Hitachi Mines’ smoke pollution problem

Umanojo Seki.

When Hitachi Mines started in 1905, the smoke emitted by the mines started to seriously cause surrounding trees and crops to weather. 23-year-old Seki tackled the issue as a citizen’s representative of the Irishiken district, an area heavily affected by the problem. The “good heart and enthusiasm” showed by all people involved in solving this smoke pollution problem was described in a novel written by Jiro Nitta in 1969, where Umanojo Seki served as a model for the creation of the main character Saburo Sekine. Seki acquired a camera in 1921 and not only did he take pictures of the smoke-polluted mountain forest, but his vivid interest in large trees left us with records of nature photographs from all over Ibaraki prefecture. These contributions were compiled into two works, the “Ibaraki prefecture Large and Old Trees Magazine” (Ibaraki-Ken Kyoju Roboku Shi or 茨城県巨樹老木誌, consisting of 2 volumes annually published between 1936 and 1940) and the “Hitachi Large and Old Trees Collection” (Hitachi Kyoju Roboku Shu or日立巨樹老木集, published in 1959.)

Seki continued taking pictures for well over half a century, making use of a wide range of photographic subjects such as members of his own family, the Hitachi mines or taking shots of Hitachi area’s natural features. A collection of photographs was published after his death under the title “The Photographic Spelling of Half of a Century.”

Japanese version of this article available here.