Pit Workers in the Old Days #16 (Baby-sitting; A Girl Working Underground in Behalf of Her Mother)
1958 - 1963

Mukashi no Yamabito #16 (Komori; Oya no Kawari no Nyuko)
[Pit Workers in the Old Days #16 (Baby-sitting; A Girl Working Underground in Behalf of Her Mother)]
21.1 x 30.2 cm Ink Painting

If a parent had a long illness, his/her children were burdened as the result. It was miserable that small children of the ages to pester their parents for snacks or sweets on waking had to take care of their younger sibling(s) or work underground. Such children, therefore, had to be absent from school intermittently or for a long periods of time and could not or would not study enough. Quite a few children in coal pits (yama) did not go to school at all until about 1902 or 1903. Additionally, some of them did not do well at school, worrying about their domestic duties (or poverty) (when they became 3rd or 4th graders).
As I described in a separate volume of my paintings, those who could finish 4th grade of primary school were lucky and rare.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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