Relocation (of a Family of Miners)
1958 - 1963

Iten (Kofu no Hikkoshi)
[Relocation (of a Family of Miners)]
21.2 x 30.4 cm Ink Painting

This miner carrying a yoke with a pair of baskets full of household effects is a prudent one. Of course, middle and large-scale coal pits had business operators to rent quilts, mattresses, mosquito nets, and pickaxes. Such goods were rented by miners' groups called o-nayas at some pits.
Unmarried workers would optimistically say that meals of rice and good luck would always be with them if they went toward smokestacks of coal pits whenever they moved.
Some workers moved from one pit to another after a short time, working at each pit for only two or three months. The smaller the pit was, the more frequently their miners moved. Such workers were inclined to move easily because they could borrow considerable advanced payments called kataire kin (aritsuke kin) from the new pits to which they moved.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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