Gunkanjima

February 25, 2006 12:22 AM

Gunkanjima or Battleship Island is 480 x 160 meters and was home to more than 5000 people. Abandoned for more than 40 years it is a microcosm of 20th century industrial development. A soundtrack to the photos. Or take the multimedia tour. Urban exploration.
posted by arse_hat (18 comments total)

Suggested by concreteforest.
posted by arse_hat at 12:24 AM on February 25, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

What a great post! One of my great regrets about living in Japan is that I didn't try to go here (via bribing fisherman, wiles, etc).
posted by soviet sleepover at 12:41 AM on February 25, 2006

See: also.
posted by keswick at 1:11 AM on February 25, 2006

I've always loved pictures of Gunkanjima.
posted by blacklite at 1:21 AM on February 25, 2006

I wish I weren't such a huge chicken about trespassing. I'd love to take up urban exploration.

Awesome post, btw.
posted by bcveen at 1:42 AM on February 25, 2006

This looks like a great setting for a piece of IF. nice post!
posted by fFish at 1:52 AM on February 25, 2006

...like a dystopian vision of Myst.

(Another movie here.)
posted by cenoxo at 3:47 AM on February 25, 2006

Those Mika Björklund recordings are a magnificent find. Thanks!
posted by Marquis at 4:47 AM on February 25, 2006

Fantastic post!
posted by Tullius at 5:57 AM on February 25, 2006

Great post, it looks an incredible place.

The first link mentions a documentary at the end of the article - you can see a small clip of it here.
posted by fire&wings at 8:31 AM on February 25, 2006

Cool post!

Interestingly, one of the directors of the documentary, CM von Hausswolff, is a noted sound artist and also the King of Vargaland (he co-founded the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland). Elgaland-Vargaland is an autonomous region made up of the world's border areas - those places in between nations that don't belong to either. Check it out here. Those crazy Swedes.
posted by nylon at 9:01 AM on February 25, 2006

Very interesting. The urban exploration is much better than the multimedia tour, but I guess that goes without saying.
posted by uni verse at 11:17 AM on February 25, 2006

fFish: Reminds me of "the day after" (post-Russia vs US-gone-nuclear)
posted by uni verse at 11:21 AM on February 25, 2006

As keswick said, Gunkanjima has been discussed before, but - ye gods! - thanks for bringing it back. It is eerie and beautiful...and totally captivating.
posted by kaseijin at 12:03 PM on February 25, 2006

Great post. Mefi on Saturdays is always a wonderful read, like a big newspaper.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 1:27 PM on February 25, 2006

thats for the credit, arse_hat. Hmmm..that sounds like a back handed compliment, but it's your handle, not me! Keswick's article was the first place I heard about it.

For those in Japan that want to visit this place, the closest option that I've found was mentioned in this article - apparently there are boats that go out and circle the island. They don't land, of course.
posted by concreteforest at 7:21 PM on February 25, 2006

Great post! And the urban exploration photos: some of the most scary images I have ever seen.
posted by ParisParamus at 7:43 PM on February 25, 2006

I love this place, I posted it on my site Red Ruin a couple months ago. Today I posted links to a HUGE Japanese urban ruin photo site. It has gunkanjima and much MUCH MUCH more.
posted by Redruin at 11:25 PM on February 28, 2006