Moji 1890s
Human Conveyor Belt (2)

How Bucket Brigades Consisting Mostly of Women Beat Modern Machinery

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4

Mounds of coal at Moji Harbor in Kyushu. Two steamers are being coaled in the background. Coal for foreign steamships was a major objective when U.S. warships forced Japan’s borders open in 1855.

This is the second article of a four-part essay about Japan’s distinctive way of coaling steamships. Harbor workers standing on scaffolding erected on the sides of a ship passed each other baskets of coal up into the ship’s bunkers at lightning speed and with clockwork rhythm.

Known as a “human conveyor belt” in English and tengutori in Japanese it fascinated observers. Especially so because indomitable women who considered themselves equal to men played a leading role in the work. They managed to do the work cheaper and quicker than modern machinery at Western ports.

The first article looked at tengutori through the eyes of the people that observed the practice, as well as how coal was stored and used on steamships.

This article explores how tengutori came into being and why.

Born under Duress

Foreign visitors enthusiastically described tengutori as truly Japanese. Hundreds of thousands of photographs, stereoviews and postcards reinforced that impression.

It was however the political and technological pressures from those visitors’ very own countries that gave birth to this practice. The Japanese way of coaling only existed because of their presence. It came into existence because of foreign pressure, and developed out of sheer desperation.

The first step towards its creation took place in 1855 (Ansei 2) when a U.S. naval squadron under the command of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794–1858) forced Japan to open its closed borders with the Treaty of Kanagawa. A letter from President Millard Fillmore (1800–1874) handed to Japanese officials clearly specified that one of the main objectives was acquiring coal:¹⁰

Commodore Perry is also directed by me to represent to your imperial majesty that we understand there is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Empire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great ocean, burn a great deal of coal, and it is not convenient to bring it all the way from America. We wish that our steamships and other vessels should be allowed to stop in Japan and supply themselves with coal, provisions, and water. They will pay for them in money, or anything else your imperial majesty’s subjects may prefer; and we request your imperial majesty to appoint a convenient port, in the southern part of the Empire, where our vessels may stop for this purpose. We are very desirous of this.

Four years after the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed, the “convenient port, in the southern part of the Empire” in President Fillmore ‘s letter became Nagasaki (number 2 on the map below). In 1859 (Ansei 6) it opened to international trade as one of only three treaty ports. The other two were Yokohama near Edo (current Tokyo) and Hakodate in Hokkaido.

Nagasaki inhabitants could not have foreseen the long-term strategic significance this assigned to their city. Just as Japan’s doors opened, naval strategy was about to become dependent on access to coal. Just four decades later, in 1900 (Meiji 33), Captain Asa Walker, who served on the General Board of the U.S. Navy, described how crucial coal had become to naval warfare:¹¹

The modern man of war presents no canvas to the winds; within her bowels is an insatiable monster whose demand is ever for coal and still more coal. Every cubic inch of available space is filled with fuel, and when this is consumed the vast machine becomes an inert mass.

Coal then may be considered as the lifeblood of the man of war, and upon its supply depends her existence as a living factor in the battle equation.

Well into the second decade of the 1900s the major powers competed fanatically to secure coaling stations to provide this “lifeblood”.

When Japan opened its borders Nagasaki unwittingly became a pawn in this game. It would now become a coaling station. Strategically located coaling stations generally became naval bases. Such ports often remained strategically important even after coal no longer fueled ships. A potential military target…

Developing Coal Mines

After the treaty ports opened, the Japanese government faced a seemingly unsurmountable problem. The country did indeed have the “great abundance of coal” mentioned in the U.S. president’s letter, but Japan’s coal mines were small-scale and dispersed, while distribution was haphazard. As steamer tonnage worldwide increased fourfold between 1850 (Kaei 3) and 1870 (Meiji 3) Japan was initially overwhelmed by the demand.¹²

Problems occasionally suggest their own solutions and this brings us to the second stage of the march to the Japanese way of coaling. Areas near Nagasaki had large and barely developed coal deposits. Government and private industry, assisted by Western engineers, developed these into modern mines employing the latest technology imported from abroad, particularly the U.K.

Especially important were the mines in Takashima and Miike (numbers 1 and 5 on the above map). They became Japan’s main producers of coal until the Chikuhō (筑穂) mining district, the area between Hakata (4) and Moji (7), began to dominate by the end of the century.¹³

Mines were also developed in other areas of the country and from the 1870s on coal mining developed into one of Japan’s principal industries. The imported technology helped lay the foundations for Japan’s industrialization.

Although Japan enthusiastically adopted the latest technology from abroad, the country generally funded it domestically. The economic policies thought up by Japan’s government—summarized in the popular slogan fukoku kyōhei (富国強兵, enrich the country, strengthen the military)—were brought to life by a powerful entrepreneurial response by the private sector.¹⁴

This cooperation of the public and private sectors while industrializing and integrating into the wider world was crucial. Funding industry domestically prevented colonization and allowed the country to maintain its independence. It also sped up Japan’s transformation from an isolated mostly agricultural society into an economic and military power that could compete with Western nations.¹⁵

If we take the 1855 Treaty of Kanagawa as the starting point and Japan’s defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (Meiji 37–38) as the end, this transformation took only half a century. The following Before and After photos of Miike graphically illustrate how dramatic this change was.

Before — Miike ca. 1870

After — Miike ca. 1926

Exporting Coal

Mines were initially developed to provide fuel for ships. But as coal production increased the Japanese government earmarked coal as a foreign currency earner. Exporting coal now became a significant business. By the turn of the century Japan exported coal to all the major Asian ports, and often dominated the market.¹⁶

Planners had to overcome a major hurdle to accomplish this. There were no modern harbors with cranes and conveyers where great quantities of coal could be quickly and efficiently loaded on large ships. There were also no funds, technology, and machinery available to develop such facilities.¹⁷

It would take decades before such modern harbor facilities were developed. The famous iron pier in Yokohama Harbor, Japan’s principal port, was completed only in 1894 (Meiji 27), 35 years after the port opened to foreign trade. However, it did not have cranes or conveyers.

In spite of its important coal mines, large ships could not even come close to Miike until a modern harbor was finally opened in 1908 (Meiji 41). Kobe’s first dedicated cargo piers were constructed between 1907 (Meiji 40) and 1922 (Taisho 11). In Nagasaki it took until 1924 (Taisho 13) until a wharf for large vessels was built.¹⁸

An exception was Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture. From the start it was extensively dredged and had a stone quay where ships could anchor. It even had a Fairbairn crane, the latest technology at the time.

Nagasaki, Japan’s first coal export port, was especially challenged by this lack of modern facilities. The bay was so shallow that the coastal area became an exposed mudflat during low tide.

Small Japanese vessels with their flat bottoms could manage this but large Western ships had to anchor offshore. To overcome this problem fleets of small boats carrying hundreds of harbor workers were used to surround the ships and load and unload them right in the middle of the bay, rain or shine.

On the photo below you can see this situation, foreign ships are in the center, Japanese vessels near the coast. Several large ships are surrounded by small vessels like a mother duck with ducklings.

These conditions created the third stage towards the development of the tengutori coaling method.

To speed up coaling—both for bunkering and export—a system was developed where harbor workers lined up vertically on the side of the ship and handed each other baskets with coal. To make up for the lack of modern port facilities they effectively transformed themselves into a living machine, a human conveyor belt.

Initially rope ladders (縄梯子, nawabashigo) were used. These were unsteady and dangerous, so a scaffolding system was developed.¹⁹ I checked thousands of photos to determine when and how this transformation took place. I found no photos with rope ladders, only scaffolding so the change likely happened quite early.

On the photo below, dated between 1882 (Meiji 15) and 1892 (Meiji 25) scaffolding is already used. But notice that the coal is ferried in by a variety of sailing vessels.

In photos from the 1900s the diverse sailing vessels have been replaced by standard coal barges, which increased loading speed and efficiency.

The First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) seemed to have helped speed up tengutori even more. Warships came into the Kyushu coaling ports day and night and they needed to be coaled as quickly as possible. During the wars the number of laborers greatly increased.²⁰ This was especially true for Moji which functioned as a principal military depot and information hub.²¹

As a fun side note, the scaffolding with workers reminded some observers of hinamatsuri doll displays. So they started calling them hinadana (the stepped stands for dolls).

Better than Machinery

The period between 1855 and the early 1900s was a time of momentous change that posed a great challenge to Japan’s ingenuity and resilience.

The tengutori system was one of the ways with which the country met that challenge. It was remarkably efficient and cheap. An American captain said in 1903 (Meiji 36) that his ship “could be coaled at Nagasaki by hand cheaper and quicker than it could in San Fransisco with all the modern machinery.”²²

After witnessing Nagasaki coaling in 1904 a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey employee wrote that machinery “seemed useless” in comparison:²³

The coal flowed into the 20-odd ports with the regularity of so many steam conveyors. about one basket every second, and from the figures which the captain gave me I figured the entire cost of loading the coal from the barges to be between two and three cents per ton. Such figures make machinery seem useless.

Tengutori greatly helped Japanese coal exports to grow quickly. So when Kuchinotsu Port (number 3 on the map) was selected in 1878 (Meiji 11) to export coal from Miike it employed the same system. Here it was called Yanchoi, after the call that harbor workers shouted as they worked.

Tengutori was also implemented in Moji (7 on the map) which replaced Nagasaki and Kuchinotsu as Japan’s most important coal export center in the mid-1890s. Photos show that Yokohama harbor workers used it as well.

It continued to be used well into the 1960s. Until the end, women were crucial.

Continue to Part 3 : A look at tengutori and the women who did the work in more detail.

Notes

¹⁰ Hawks, Francis L. (1857). Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 298.

The other two objectives mentioned in the letter were trade and benevolent treatment for Americans shipwrecked in Japan.

¹¹ Maurer, John H. (1981). FUEL AND THE BATTLE FLEET: COAL, OIL, AND AMERICAN NAVAL STRATEGY, 1898-1925. Naval War College Review, 34(6), 60–77. Retrieved on 2023-10-21.

¹² Phipps, Catherine L. (2015). Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Asia Center, 89.

For a brief history about coal mining in Japan, including pre-Meiji, see Murakushi, Nisaburo (1980). Technology and Labour in Japanese Coal Mining. Institute of Developing Economies Japan External Trade Organization.

¹³ ibid, 92–93.

Karatsu in Kyushu also had a large coal output, but because of its high quality the Meiji government earmarked its deposits for the navy.

¹⁴ Private-sector development during the early 1870s initially failed because of a lack of human capital, financial management skills, and knowledge of international industry and trade requirements. See Austin, Ian; Best, Alexander (2022). Early Meiji Japan and Public History: Ports, Public Memory, Gateways to Understanding through Photography, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.

However, Japanese companies like Mitsubishi and Mitsui Bussan, which purchased the Takashima and Miike collieries, soon played an important role in Japan’s industrialization.

¹⁵ For a brief overview of Japan’s industrialization during the Meiji Period, read The Industrialization and Global Integration of Meiji Japan, chapter 5 in Ohno Kenichi (2003). East Asian Growth and Japanese Aid Strategy., GRIPS Development Forum.

¹⁶ Phipps, Catherine L. (2015). Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Asia Center, 89.

¹⁷ During the Meiji Period important port constructions took place at Misumi in Kyushu (intended for exporting Miike coal), Mikuni in Fukui Prefecture), and Nobiru in Miyagi Prefecture. They were started in 1884 and completed in 1887. Yet even at these newly constructed ports loading and offloading took place offshore.

¹⁸ 第15回 長崎港出島岸壁. DOVOC通信ながさきNo.40(令和2年3月)：長崎県の土木遺産. Retrieved on 2023-10-16.

¹⁹ Conversation with Mr. Kiyochika Iida, a researcher with the Kuchinotsu History and Folklore Museum (口之津歴史民俗資料館) in Minamishimabara, 2023-10-20.

²⁰ 林 えいだい (1983). 海峡の女たち―関門港沖仲仕の社会史. 葦書房, 56.

Phipps, Catherine L. (2015). Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Asia Center, 191–192.

²¹ Phipps, Catherine L. (2015). Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Asia Center, 15.

²² Coaling Ships by Hand: Men, Women and Children All Take Part in the Work in Nagasaki, Japan. Lawrence Daily World, Feb 9, 1903, 2. Retrieved on 2023-10-20.

²³ Sparrow, Carroll M. (1904). Labor in Philippines. Former Baltimorean Finds It Expensive at Ten Cents a Day, Manufacturers and Farmers Journal, Sep 22, 1904. Retrieved on 2023-10-20.

Published November 24, 2023
Updated November 2, 2024 5:24 PM

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