People at Coal Pits (Yamabito) in the Old Days (The Dog Killer and the Chimney Smoke)
1964 - 1967

Mukashi no Yamabito (Inugoroshi to Entotsu no Kemuri)
[People at Coal Pits (Yamabito) in the Old Days (The Dog Killer and the Chimney Smoke)]
38.1 x 54.1 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

Though most coal miners were rough, they hated the dog killer. Some second-shift miners took a day off if they saw him before entering the pit. There is a legend that dogs are messengers of mountain (yama) gods or goddesses, and pit workers believed that if they killed dogs, accidents or disasters would happen in the pit (yama). Miners also hated bloody events and deaths calling them aka-fujos [unclean (fujo) incidents related to red (aka) blood] and kuro-fujos [unclean incidents related to mourning black (kuro)] respectively. .
They were also afraid of seeing smoke rising from a chimney in two columns, because they thought it was a warning of a horrible disaster to come.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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