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Paper short abstract

This paper draws on the concept of “chimerism”—a term from the natural sciences denoting an organism with multiple sets of DNA—to examine narratives on Japanese spoil tips. Like genetic chimeras, these narratives mutate, propagate, and fuse, defying binary notions such as “industrial” or “natural”.

Paper long abstract

Spoil tips or slag heaps (Jp:ぼた山bota-yama, ズリ山zuri-yama) are mounds formed from the accumulation of the wasted material resulted during the mining process. While composed mostly of sterile rock, the piled material retains a great ability to trap heat, which can prevent the area from ever going green again and exposes it to the risk of spontaneous combustion, erosion or weathering. However, in some cases, vegetation reestablishes itself in these areas naturally or through human intervention. In Japan, people refer to these regreened hilly areas as “yama” (ヤマ), a word that generally denotes mountains, but is also used to refer to the mines that produced these anthropogenic landscapes.

Often conical in shape and situated in urban areas that have long left behind their industrial era, these mountains of waste become local landmarks and mnemonic aids for an era when Japan, through great struggle, transformed itself from a secluded archipelago into an industrialized modern nation. UNESCO`s recognition of several historical sites related to Japan`s Meiji era industrial revolution period as World Heritage in 2015 added a new semantic layer to storytelling once constructed around these areas being dark and dangerous. Moreover, confronted with the challenges of the Anthropocene, local communities view these “mountains” not only as vivid reminders of a common past of industrial glory and societal turmoil, but also as non-human witnesses to the extractive practices that brought upon our world an era of unprecedented climate uncertainty.