Pit Workers in the Old Days #13: Peddler of Ochini's Medicine, Who Visited the Pit around 1908
1958 - 1963

Mukashi no Yamabito #13: Meiji Yonju Ichinen Koro Sugata o Miseta Ochini no Kusuri Gyoshonin
[Pit Workers in the Old Days #13: Peddler of Ochini's Medicine, Who Visited the Pit around 1908]
21.1 x 30.4 cm Ink Painting

Text at the Top Right
At that time, instead of the letter representing the sound of [o], one representing the sound of [wo] was used when ?Ochini? was written in katakanas [from the right to the left like the lettering on the peddler?s armband.]

He wore a fine costume in which the uniforms for a station official and a superintendent were mixed together and wore a shoulder bag for medicine at his waist. He also hung his small accordion around his neck, and played it to the song he sang, stepping with the beat.

Osaka Nishiku wa Itachibori
Nihon-ichi seiyaku de na mo takai.
Ochini no kusuri wa yoku kiku ne.
Kono mata kusuri no kono wa,
kodomo no katakori, koshi-itami,
jiisan baasan no mushikudashi,
atama no fumiyose, ashi no zutsu.
(Ijo yumorasu mane uta)

Itachibori in Nishi-ku, Osaka is famous
for our Nihon-ichi pharmaceutical company.
Ochini's medicine works very well.
Our medicine has immediate effects
on the backaches and stiff shoulders of children,
the worms of the elderly,
blisters in your head, and headaches in your feet.
(The above is a parody of his song with the roles reversed.)

He was popular among the children in the pit because he handed a crude octavo of Japanese calligraphy paper (or western paper) with his figure printed on it to each child. (However, he suddenly stopped visiting the pit two or three years later.)
It is said that this type of accordion was invented by an Austrian named Damian and that it was also called a hand organ.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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