Verbally Abusive Pottery Selling in the Meiji Era (1868-1912): A Visitor to the Pit (Yama)
December 1965

Meiji, Toki no Akko-uri: Yama no Homonsha
[Verbally Abusive Pottery Selling in the Meiji Era (1868-1912): A Visitor to the Pit (Yama)]
37.9 x 53.8 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

"See, I'll sell a set of ten rice bowls at 40 sen. You can't buy one at even 10 sen in towns. They sell one at 1 yen in the fairground. Clink! Clink! Yeah, listen to this sound. Poor children wake up, hearing the clinking sound of rice bowls. Ha, I see. I guess you probably eat rice with only one bowl in your family. You can eat pickled Japanese radish (takuan konkon) with your fingers, but you'll scald your fingers if you scoop up hot rice porridge."
"I'll sell five rice bowls at half of the price, 20 sen. Give them to each of your family members like this. The first one is for your cowardly papa, the next one is for your mean mama, the third one is for your jobless son, the fourth one is for your thieving daughter, and the last one is for your sniveling kid."
It is said that this kind of sale began around 1887 and people happily bought the pottery in spite of the abuse.
"Come now. Buy my rice bowls, and break lots of them when you fight with your husbands and wives."


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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