Pit workers in the Old Days #12 (1): Aid System (Aid to the Diseased)
1958 - 1963

Mukashi no Yamabito #12 (1): Kyusaiho (Byonin no Kyusai)
[Pit workers in the Old Days #12 (1): Aid System (Aid to the Diseased)]
21.2 x 30.2 cm Ink Painting

Text at the Top Right
It was very rare that pit workers in the old days were injured in blasting accidents because miners did not use dynamite at that time. There were only some who were individually injured in gas explosions at their coalfaces.

Main Text
Coal pits (yama) in the Meiji era (1868-1912) had no welfare facilities and the owners of mine companies or the employers called "koshis" at least took care of the medical costs for their employees who were occupationally injured. I heard that they also gave a very small amount of relief fund to the incurably diseased and the bereaved families. It was supposedly because there was not even a firm official welfare law.
It goes without saying that those who were non-occupationally injured or ill in bed lived miserable lives. Miner-group bosses (nayagashira) took care of workers belonging to their groups (o-naya) and the personnel sub-section foremen took care of miners under the direct control of the mine company (chokkatsu kofu). However, they cruelly worked the healthy workers so hard and their manners became remote and cold to the same workers if they were injured or became ill. They treated the injured and the diseased like their burdens and naturally became unkind to them. It was because the amount of their workers' debts (saka) grew bigger. Those who were ill in bed for a long time and had lots of family members were particularly pitiful and they suffered hell on earth.

Additional Notes:
How fortunate it is for the diseased in coal pits today that the Health Insurance Act was established when the Showa era (1926-1989) approached!

Tanka: seventeem-syllabled short poem
(Toshiyorite mukashi omoeba me ga kasumu sukuite no nai yowaki yamabito)

(When I think of the past after I got very old, my eyes blur with tears, remembering the weak and helpless people in the old pits)

Lettering in the Insets

Inset at the Top Right
Kosha ni yoru Kosho: Occupational Injury in a Mine Car Accident

Inset at the Top Left
Rakuban ni yoru Kosho: Occupational Injury in a Roof Collapse

Inset at the Bottom Right
Shibyo Kanja: Patient of a Non-occupational Disease
haragusuri: stomach medicine

Inset at the Bottom Left
Konai Jusho: Serious Injury Underground


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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