Wall-collapse Prevention Fences in Levels in the Meiji Era (1868-1912)
May 1966

Meiji, Kanekata, Kakoi
[Wall-collapse Prevention Fences in Levels in the Meiji Era (1868-1912)]
38.2 x 54.3 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

Hard shale roofs in the pit (yama) did not fall (barenai) easily. However, increasing rock pressure strained the whole pit. Therefore, the bottoms of slopes and levels swelled while the walls on the inclined sides (katakabe) collapsed (kayaru). In order to equalize and smooth out the railway tracks, the floor, of which some parts had become swollen by rock pressure, was lowered (kujirisage). The repairer drove new pillars along the fallen walls. He also fixed thin lagging (narugi) on the pillars to make fences between them. At points where pillar legs were stood, the floor was dug as deep as more than 10 centimeters. If not, the pillars standing directly on the floor sometimes popped out when rock pressure increased, and fell down on miners.
By the way, even women miners did not carry mine timber on their shoulders underground. Each of them held mine timber under their arm, also supporting it with their hips, even when they carried it through slopes with high roofs. The size of the gap between pillars (frames) was decided so that 1.8-meter-long lagging could be fixed between two of them.

Text at the Top Right
Nagakasugai (Long Clamp)
A long clamp was used as a hole-digging bar. It was made of a 25 millimeter round bar as long as about 1.3 meters or more. It had steel tips on both ends. It was used to support pillars when repairers built frames underground. Usually, clamps were made of 23 millimeter round iron bars.

Text at the Top Middle
Repairers (shikurikata) did not become as dirty as hewers and their helpers (sumidori). However, the former had to acquire great skill that the latter did not. Of course, there were differences in skill among experienced repairers.

Lyrics of "Gotton Bushi" Song at the Top Left
Kitte toru no ga Chokichi mekuri.
Kirazu utsuyona ki ga aro ka. Gotton!

We cut the hanafuda cards to play Chokichi mekuri.
Could we get any wood to nail without cutting trees?
Gotton (Clang)! (Interjected chant)


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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