Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days (Company Officer; Underground Boss)
1958 - 1963

Mukashi no Yama (Yakunin; Konai Toryo/Kogashira)
[Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days (Company Officer; Underground Boss)]
21.2 x 30.2 cm Ink Painting

Text at the Right End
Today, the underground boss is called a saikogakari or konai gemba and only does his own duties. However, he was called a konai toryo or kogashira in the past and was unfit for his duties if he could not quarrel or fight with miners.
Since the underground boss in a small coal pit had no staff, he had to do everything alone.
Additionally, most coal pits had no underground carpenter who worked on the second shift, and the underground boss at such a pit secretly had a difficult time doing a lot of hard work, such as repairing tracks himself etc.

Text at the Top
He was too busy to take a rest and got weary from concentrating on his duties, such as taking measures against roof falls, mine car accidents, blasting accidents and other accidents. He had additional duties, such as maintaining the signal line, preventing mine cars from overrunning, repairing the winding machine, keeping the drainage smooth and the pump man safe, replacing derailed mine cars on the rails and repairing tracks. Even more: assigning day-laborers for repairing dangerous workings, encouraging miners to achieve the goal of expected coal production, assigning coalfaces to miners, concurrently doing the task of the blasting technician, confirming and securing the ventilation, etc.

Text in the Inset
Most roof falls in levels occurred because the lagging between support units broke though the beams of the units did not break. Since roof falls stopped up slopes briefly, the underground boss became very busy working hard to open them again to traffic in such cases.

Lettering on the Shoulder Bag Worn by the Underground Boss
kayaku: explosives


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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