Fuels Used by Pit Workers #5 (Cooking Stoves; Chopping Timber)
1958 - 1963

Yamabito no Nenryo #5 (Kamado; Koboku-wari)
[Fuels Used by Pit Workers #5 (Cooking Stoves; Chopping Timber)]
21.0 x 29.9 cm Ink Painting

Text on the Right Side
Pit workers used old mine timber as firewood for cooking rice, which only produced low heat and much smoke. Since their cooking stoves did not have any chimneys, flames and smoke escaped from openings, which meant much heat was wasted.
(The top figure shows an old kamado [cooking furnace] in connection with Sampo Kojin [guardian deity of furnaces].)
Cut straw was used to reinforce the earthen handmade kuro (normally kudo: cooking furnace or stove) in the same way as reinforcing earthen walls. Owners of such furnaces were proud of them because their rice was well cooked. The straw could cure sties. Each of the miners would enter the pit after putting the soot from their furnace on their forehead, believing that it had the power to prevent accidents from occurring.
Though miners at that time did not seem to know the ash inside their furnaces was useful for easing morning sickness, they seemed to know that it was good for injuries, burns or scalds.

Text below the Figures of Cooking Stoves
Cooking Stove Rapidly Made from an Empty Oil Can
Two bricks were fixed here on the bottom inside.

Text at the Bottom Left
It is said that we must cut bamboo after standing it on its bottom and firewood on its head. However, some crooked pieces of wood cannot be cut even if they are stood on their heads.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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