Boardinghouse for Unmarried Male Workers at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Mid-Meiji Era (1868-1912)
March 1967

Meiji Chuki Yama no O-naya
[Boardinghouse for Unmarried Male Workers at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Mid-Meiji Era (1868-1912)]
37.8 x 53.9 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

Text at the Bottom Right
Most unmarried pit workers called gezainins [ex-convicts; some miners were ex-convicts but most of them were not] moved like clouds from one pit to another, staying at each for two or three months. Therefore, those who had kimono were better off than most. Some of them drank sake by the hearth only in their loincloth, each shouldering a quilt after bathing on returning from the pit.

Text at the Top Left
Those who disliked drinking sake had no amusement except gambling or reading novels. However, gambling was prohibited except on holidays, and they went into the mountains and gambled in secret. Their holiday came once a month and the holiday was called a kokan-bi (exchange day).
The novels they read were books borrowed from the rental library. Each of them was rented for 3 sen (0.03 yen) a week. The rental library appeared in the coal pit around 1905. Most books they rented were story books adapted from the programs of kodan storytelling, such as the records of Hakuryu Kanda or the shorthand records of Heijiro Maruyama. The titles of the novels were Taikoki (a story of one of the Japanese conquerors in the 16th century, Hideyoshi Toyotomi), Ako Gishi Den (a story of the forty-seven loyal samurai of the Ako Clan), Buyuden (stories of strong samurais), and others. Also old novels by Gyokushusai Tamada and later new ones by Gensai Murai and Namiroku Murakami were published. The rental library rented each of their books at 5 sen (0.05 yen) a week in the late Meiji era. Satomi Hakken Den (a fantasy novel of eight loyal dogs of the House of Satomi) by Bakin Takizawa was also very popular.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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