Shouldering Bamboo Basket in the Taisho Era (1912-1926)
1964 - 1967

Taisho Jidai Karai Tebo
[Shouldering Bamboo Basket in the Taisho Era (1912-1926)]
37.9 x 54.3 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

The karai tebo was useless at coalfaces of thin coal seams (teisotan), but was useful at the coalfaces of pits with coal seams greater than 1.5 meters thick. These baskets were used at slopes connected to important points (yakudoko) where miners could not moor mine cars (tsuribako) to winch ropes.
During the Meiji era (1868-1912), such a basket was not seen in coal mines.
The capacity of a karai tebo was about 40 kilograms of coal; as much as about 3 bamboo-winnow-loads of coal. (The bamboo winnow was called an ebi [ebu] and used to scoop up coal.) It was not easy to turn a karai tebo if the clearance between the ceiling and the top of the mine car was less than 60 centimeters.
At that time, small and middle-scale coal mines used different-sized mine cars. A mine car could carry 40 to 50 big ebi winnows of coal (About 0.5 tons).


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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