Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days (Dancing to a Shamisen Accompaniment around 1899)
1958 - 1963

Mukashi no Yama (Meiji Sanju Ninen Koro Shamisen no Odori)
[Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days (Dancing to a Shamisen Accompaniment around 1899)]
21.0 x 30.2 cm Ink Painting

Every day and night, there was bloodshed in the pit. Someone was often heard to say, "A man was also killed yesterday!" or "There was another fight today!" In those days when the people in the pit did not imagine they could hear the sound of a shamisen (three-stringed instrument), they could actually hear the sound of the instrument coming from a Japanese-style tatami room of Oshima Naya boardinghouse in Kamimio Coal Pit, which deeply comforted and cheered the hearts of the rough people in the pit.

Song Lyrics
Yuki wa chira chira otona wa kojikeru.
Kodomo wa yorokobu. Sassa!
Inu me wa tonde deru.
Yuki o marumete. Sassa!
Hoki de hawaku yara,
yane no yuki ya sao de sasu.
Ara! Chichin-tsun-ten-shan!

It's snowing and the grown-ups are confused.
But the children are delighted. Sassa! (Interjected chant)
The dog comes jumping.
The children make snowballs. Sassa!
They broom the fallen snow,
sweeping up the snow on roofs with poles.
Ara! (Interjected chant) Chichin-tsun-ten-shan! (Onomatopoeia of the sounds of the shamisen)

Many other Kappore-style songs, such as Gosho no Oniwa (The Garden of the Emperor's Palace), Honen Mansaku (The Rich Year for Crops), Watanabe no Tsuna (Tsuna of the Watanabe Clan), Kabuto (Helmet), and so on were played.
Even if it was an old, narrow, miserable house called a naya (i.e. barn), there were at least sliding paper doors in the house of a naya-doryo (miner group boss).


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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