2018 METAL CULTURE Katsushika
Value One Autumn 2018 No.62
The Papermaking Industry’s Industrial Heritage
A large reddish-brown iron ball sits quietly in a corner of a grassy park as if it has been there forever. The massive object is four meters tall and sticks out against its verdant background.
This mysterious object—which looks as if it has come straight out of a Hayao Miyazaki movie—is called a “globe digester.” The person who named it is unknown, but it’s certainly big and round. “Digester” refers to the type of work the iron ball performed for many years.
Katsushika Niijuku Future Park is close to JR Kanamachi Station in Katsushika City, Tokyo. The vast grounds include the neighboring Katsushika campus of the Tokyo University of Science, and up until 2003 the Nakagawa plant of Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd. operated here. A hundred tonnes of water was required to make every tonne of paper at a paper plant, so the plant was built in a location near a source of water. In fact, since before World War II there were many paper mills along the Naka and Edo rivers, which both flow through Katsushika City. The Nakagawa plant began operations in 1917, and during the war the Ministry of Finance tasked it with manufacturing banknotes. After the war, it supplied printing paper to the thriving publishing industry near the city center.
Filled with the memories of people from the papermaking industry’s past, this decommissioned globe digester will remain forever in this verdant park where children and students come to relax.