People at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days #8: Drainage (Scooping up Water Stage by Stage)
1958 - 1963

Mukashi Yama no Hitobito #8: Haisui (Dangumi)
[People at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days #8: Drainage (Scooping up Water Stage by Stage)]
20.6 x 29.2 cm Ink Painting

In small pits spending little money on building materials, mine water was scooped up and drained stage by stage (dangumi) after many stages of small dams were built instead of wooden troughs. Workers in such pits built levees with large masses of rock (arabota) and filled their holes with clay (gichi), making them into dam-like narrow ditches. Each laborer in charge of drainage scooped up water again and again, alone and all in a sweat. These dams were used in S Coal Pit even in 1907. (Wooden buckets or tin cans were used for this purpose.)

Lyrics of "Gotton Bushi" Song at the Bottom
Ase ga unto derya sama-chan ga mugoi.
Nambo kundemo mija heranu.
Dokkoi! Dokkoi!

I feel pity for my sweetheart because he's sweating all over
from scooping up water which never seems to decrease.
Dokkoi! Dokkoi! (Interjected chants)


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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