Women at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days #8 (Storing Coal before Loading it into a Mine Car)
1958 - 1963

Mukashi Yama no Onna #8 (Chotan o Shite Sumibako ni Ireru)
[Women at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days #8 (Storing Coal before Loading it into a Mine Car)]
20.5x 29.2 cm Ink Painting

In the mining of thin coal beds, it was impossible to build platforms (suradana) for coal sleds (sura) because the roofs of levels (kanekata) for such coal beds were naturally cut low. Therefore, each of the women helpers took the trouble to carry and dump coal in their sura many times and temporarily pile it up (kabudashi) until enough coal to fill a mine car or more had been stored. Then they would scoop it into mine cars with bamboo winnows. At some levels, suras were unloaded at places one tier higher than the periphery. In this case, helpers needed to use more power than usual because suras were usually dumped lengthways.
Note: The capacity of a small sura was about 200 kg or more than 300 kin.

Lyrics of "Gotton Bushi" Song at the Top Left
Iyana hitoguri jaken-na kamba nasakeshirazu no nayagashira.
Gotton!

What a shame that I must have a hateful personnel supervisor (hitoguri),
unkind treasurer (kamba), and cruel group boss (nayagashira)!
Gotton (Clang)! (Interjected chant)


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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