Mining of a Thin Coal Bed Called a Teisotan: Mining during the Decade Starting from 1897
1958 - 1963

Teisotan no Saitan: Meiji Sanjunen Dai
[Mining of a Thin Coal Bed Called a Teisotan: Mining during the Decade Starting from 1897]
21.2 x 29.9 cm Ink Painting

Thin coal beds called "shakunashi" were 45 to 60 cm thick. The roofs of the haulage ways (sura kairo) reaching their coalfaces were cut and made higher than the tops of the coal beds by about 15 cm though they were rather hard and the cutting work was done without pay. A pair of workers called a hitosaki mined about 2 tons and a half (5 mine-car-loads) or three tons (6 mine-car-loads) of coal a day, undercutting the bottom part of their coalface before hacking away the hanging coal inside of the undercut.
The mining wages (kirichin) per tub or mine car of coal were 20 to 23 sen. (All coal beds have a cross grain or straight grain, and those with a cross grain are soft but those with a straight grain are hard.)

Lyrics of "Gotton Bushi" Song
Ishi wa chonkan demo jikan sae tateba,
agarya nigo han ga udemakuri.
Gotton!

Even if I can mine no more than a tub of coal today,
450 milliliters of sake will be waiting for me
when I return home after my working hours are done.
Gotton (Clang)! (Interjected chant)

Note: "Chonkan" means "one tub (mine car)."


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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