Deduction (Coal Weight Inspection)
1958 - 1963
Kan-biki (Saitanryo Kensa)
[Deduction (Coal Weight Inspection)]
21.1 x 30.4 cm Ink Painting
Text at the Right End
The atoyama (helper of a hewer; mainly his wife) went to the weighing clerk's station (kanryogakari) to receive the handmade coal tallies with her hewer's name written on them a few hours after she came out of the pit in the evening. The rate of deduction was shown in white chalk on each of the tallies. A circle chalked on a tally meant a deduction for mixed rock refuse in the mine car to which the tally was attached, and a cross meant a lack of load. One transverse line showed a 10 % deduction. Though rock refuse was hardly mixed in the coal mined in A and B coal pits, 20 or 30 % on average was deducted from every mine-car-load of coal in both pits.
Text at the Top Left
The kanryo (today's kentangakari: weighing clerk) became the miners' object of resentment, because he deducted as much as dozens or hundreds of tons of coal from their mined coal with a piece of chalk.
Though the mine car (sumibako) was designed so that it could be overloaded with coal by 40 % of the normal load (normal load = 0.5 to 0.7 ton), it was actually overloaded with mined coal by more than a half ton.
Text beside and below the Weighing Clerk and the Two Women
"Today our mine cars have a good quantity of coal with no refuse. Wow, he deducted 30% from our coal." "His deduction is just guess work. Our wages will be shared between us two and the kanryo." The kanryo and the atoyama quarreled everyday.
20 % of coal was normally deducted from even the load of coal in a fully loaded mine car if it was not overloaded by lining its edge with large masses of coal (tachigure).
Hewer's Name on the Tallies
Sakeno [family name] Nomisuke [given name]: [Translator's Notes: This name is a joke, which means "an alcohol drinker (sakenomi)."]
Name on the Tally Held in the Weighing Clerk's Hand
Sumino [family name] Denzo [given name (for a man)]
[Translator's Notes: This is also a joke meaning "a man who can't mine much coal."]
Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro
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