Pit Workers in the Old days (Thin Coal Beds Which Worried Miners)
March 1965

Mukashi no Yamabito (Kofu Nakase no Teisotan)
[Pit Workers in the Old days (Thin Coal Beds Which Worried Miners)]
38.1 x 54.2 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

Most small-scale coal pits in the Chikuho region had thin coal beds accompanied by low haulage ways. The pit workers at such pits could not lift their heads even in the levels (kanekata), except beside the walls on the inclined sides of the levels when the coalfaces were newly mined. When rock pressure increased and the roofs of the haulage ways sagged, it sometimes became difficult for the mine cars to go through. In this case, the hewer's woman helper could not put her hands on the edge of her mine car or lift her head.
In the coal pits run by Mr. A, their pit workers lined the edges of their mine cars with big coal masses and piled up slack coal (kirigomitan) inside. This coal loading method was called tategure. The other loading method was called bozuzumi. The coal loaded in the mine cars according to this method was regarded as 80 % of that loaded in tategure. It was evaluated 20 % less than tategure before weighing it. If the coal was evenly loaded into the mine car as shown in this painting, the miner had to push one more loaded mine car in a day to earn enough money in a pit where the delay of mine car distribution (hakonagure) often happened. This problem was a real headache to miners.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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