Rice Riots at Coal Pits (Yama) #12: Riots in the Kaho and Iizuka Districts
1958 - 1963

Yama no Kome-sodo #12: Ka-Han Chiku
[Rice Riots at Coal Pits (Yama) #12: Riots in the Kaho and Iizuka Districts]
21.0 x 30.2 cm Ink Painting

From the 27th to 28th of August in 1918, some of the rioters in the Kaho and Iizuka districts went to their mine office to negotiate with their superiors while others destroyed their mine store, gathered followers, and demonstrated. It is said that all of the rioters in the Central Coal Pit of Yahata Ironworks were led and controlled by several young miners and there was no outstanding ringleader among them. Though the pit was run by a semi-governmental company and was a very large-scale one, their row houses for pit workers were not the best.
Each of the low houses for temporary employees had only a 6-tatami room, and each of the ones for career employees had a 4-and-a-half-tatami room and a 3-tatami room. Each closet built between two neighboring row houses was divided in half, the two neighboring families sharing one half each of the upper and lower parts. The doors of two neighboring row houses were placed side by side on their entrances. Some of the roofs of row houses for temporary employees were thatched.

Organizer: Hey, Bokoyama [assumed name]! Why don't you hurry up and join us? It's your own affair!

Text at the Bottom Center
Additional Notes: Coal pits run by Mitsui (an industrial conglomerate) at that time had separated houses for miners, each with a 4-and-a-half-tatami room and an about-1.8-meter-wide closet. Coal pits run by Mitsubishi (another industrial conglomerate) had 6-tatami-room miners' row houses. From this you can easily imagine the conditions at other pits.

Text at the Bottom Left
Ringleader: We are getting nowhere in the negotiations with our employers.
Make a raid on them!

They raided their mine store called a kobaikai in the same way as the rioters of Mineji Coal Pit in Tagawa.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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