Children in Coal Pits (Yama) #1 (Cleaning Lamp Globes; Girls' Play and Games
1958 - 1963

Yama no Kodomotachi #1 (Rampu no Hoya-migaki; Onnanoko no Asobi)
[Children in Coal Pits (Yama) #1 (Cleaning Lamp Globes; Girls' Play and Games]
21.0 x 29.9 cm Ink Painting

Not only girls but also boys in coal pits 8 or 9 years of age or older were made to look after their younger siblings. Additionally, as their routine, both boys and girls had to carry pickaxes from the smithy at the pit mouth to their house every evening (pickaxes were transported on loaded mine cars from pit bottoms to smithies in some pits), clean lamps and their glass globes, and go to buy oil every other day. Cleaning lamps was especially difficult for young boys. They were scolded by their parents if meshes below the glass globes of lamps became dusty, because a lot of soot would be generated and the lamp lights would weaken when these dusty lamps were lit. There was fear of explosions and fires if these meshes were choked.
A very small dynamo was installed only in K Coal Pit, enabling each miner's family to use electric lamps in 1908. Three purple arc lights were set up at the pit mouth and the people in the nearby farm village also showed interest in and enjoyed their brightness. The electric lamp for pit workers' houses had a double coil inside to produce 5 shoku (candela) of light and a projection on the top of its glass tube. All the people in the pit were delighted at this new lamp as a gift of civilization because it was brighter than old oil lamps. It goes without saying that boys were so delighted that they almost began to dance.

Text at the Bottom Left
Girls at that time enjoyed various games and play, such as temari (ball bouncing), nawatobi (rope jumping), oitsutsu ishi (bean bag juggling), ayatori (cat's cradle), zukkomi or oita (pog), hajiki or kataishi (taw), wakeri (nageishi) or kenken tobi (hopscotch), kabekokashi or tamanage (ball throwing), koi no takinobori (carp swimming up a waterfall), otete tsunaide (joining hands in a circle), kuchi hozuki (ground cherry in mouth), kakurembo (hide-and-seek), and so on.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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