Kobe 1900s
Human Conveyor Belt (4)

How Bucket Brigades Consisting Mostly of Women Beat Modern Machinery

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4

A very rare view of boats with harbor workers on their way to a steamer at Kobe Harbor, visible in the back. This article looks at how Japanese coaling was done from the workers’ viewpoint.

This is the fourth article of a four-part essay about Japan’s distinctive way of coaling steamships during the late 1800s and early 1900s. 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 foreign observers, as well as how coal was stored and used on steamships. The second article explained how the tengutori system evolved, and why. The third article looked at Japan’s coaling ports and the people, especially the women who did the work.

This final article delves into how the work was done from the viewpoint of the workers themselves.

The Work

Arrangements for coaling were generally made the day before a steamer’s arrival. When it appeared at the harbor, the boats with oki-nakashi were already waiting.

As the steamer slowed down they rowed their boats to the vessel to allow one of them to climb a rope up to the deck. Next, the most skilled and reliable workers—hired at high wages—started to build the multi-level scaffolding.³⁸ The number of levels depended on the size of the ship. A large 10,000-ton ship could require as many as ten.³⁹

Erecting the scaffolding was life-threatening work. But it was done breathtakingly fast. Often within 20 minutes.⁴⁰ By the time the steamer came to a stop at a buoy, the scaffolding was completed, the coal barges arrived, and coaling started.

The oki-nakashi worked in crews called kuchi (ロ) supervised by a kogashira (小頭). A single crew generally consisted of about 25 to 30 men and women, but could grow to as many as 40 to 50 members for large steamers.⁴¹

The number of crews depended on the size of the ship and the available time. To load a ship faster one simply increased the number of crews. Sometimes even on both sides of the vessel. Large ships often had a few hundred oki-nakashi coaling simultaneously. A magnificent view.

Chanting rhythmically, crew members moved the baskets with coal up the line in a continuous flowing motion.⁴² At the end of the line the coal was dumped into a chute to the bunker hold. Finally the empty baskets were thrown back, usually five or six at a time.

This was surprisingly hard as they had to land right at the feet of the people who shoveled the coal onto them. Journalist Hayashi described how it was done:⁴³

Only the most skilled oki-nakashi can throw back the baskets well. There is a considerable distance from the top to the workers in the barge. If a strong wind blows even a little, the baskets will be blown away. When the women throw them, the baskets spin around, fall at the feet of the workers shoveling coal onto the baskets, and then come to an abrupt stop. The shovelers either gently catch the baskets with one of their feet or hold them with their rake.

A single crew loaded an amazing 30 tons of coal an hour. Each loaded basket contained about 8 to 10 kg of coal and moved at a speed of about 1.5 to 2.0 meters per second, close to average jogging speed.⁴⁴

Take recalled doing this for hours on end, often starting before the sun rose:⁴⁵

When the ship was in a hurry, we had to leave early at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. … The hours were not fixed at all. Japanese ships stopped working at 6 or 7 p.m. and went home, but Western ships were in a hurry to leave, so we could not stop until all the coal was loaded, even if it was after 12 p.m. or all night. Sometimes we would even stay up for two or three nights.

Although the all-nighters were unimaginable hard workers looked forward to them. The reason speaks volumes about their economic conditions. During all-nighters their company brought them onigiri rice balls and pickles for dinner, a luxurious delicacy to the poverty-stricken workers. They usually ate mainly potatoes.

In her interview, former oki-nakashi Take briefly described her family’s living conditions. They lived in a small room of about 9 square meters (99 square feet) in a crude wooden nagaya (長屋) rowhouse, with a corridor running through the center of the building:⁴⁶

It was a nagaya with a corridor in the middle so people could pass through. Rooms were located on both sides of the corridor. The rooms were about 6 tatami mats in size, and no matter how many people were in the family there was only one room. There was a cooking stove inside the room, so it was very tight for a house with a lot of family members. There were no tatami mats, just a wooden floor. There were no mushiro [woven straw mats] either, so we brought ampera [rush matting] from the ships and laid them down to sleep on.

Crews competed fiercely. They battled over the best positions and raced to finish coaling first. This rivalry often got so heated that crews got into fights, for which they kept weapons. Hatsu Tomita, (富田ハッ), the daughter of a Moji cargo broker, told journalist Hayashi that her family stored more than 30 Japanese swords in a chest at home. Her father warned her to use them sparingly:⁴⁷

Swords are not something you use very often. Only when you are in danger. Do not look at them or take them out without my permission.

Take also mentioned fights. She was from Yoronjima near Okinawa, one of over a thousand islanders who moved to Kuchinotsu after a typhoon devastated their island in 1898 (Meiji 31). They faced harsh discrimination from the local people. She explained how the islanders threw the locals into the sea, which was effective as they generally could not swim:⁴⁸

We used to fight a lot at work. When local people got into fights, they would bring rakes and shovels. They probably brought stuff like that when it looked like they were about to loose. So the Yoron islanders threw them into the sea. After all, it was a fight. We would not be defeated by force. At work people from Yoron were not beat by the locals either. Even women.

Author Ashihei Hino (火野葦平, 1907–1960) described the violence in Hana to Ryū (花と竜, “Flowers and Dragons”). Published during 1952 and 1953 (Showa 27–28) the story was based on his parents’ pre-war experiences in the coaling trade. The book was made into a play, a radio program, films, and TV dramas.

Today

When oil increasingly replaced coal after the end of WWI (1914–1918) the number of oki-nakashi decreased. Coaling slowly faded away into oblivion after the end of WWII. Female oki-nakashi stopped working in the 1970s.

Japan’s coal mines also vanished. Domestic production fully ended in 2002. Today, Japan imports all its coal.

All of Japan’s mines are gone or live on as ruins. An infamous symbol of this broken industrialized landscape is Hashima Island in Nagasaki. The scarred uninhabitable island is a potent reminder of the irretrievable damage that we do to our earth, a tiny fragile island in the universe.

The oki-nakashi have been mostly forgotten. There are a few reminders in Kyushu’s ports, but most Japanese are largely unfamiliar with their story.

Postscript: Something Strange

In researching the photographs of tengutori it became clear that the largest number are from the 1900s, especially postcards and stereoviews. But there is something strange, the main Japanese photographers are missing from the action.

Of the three photographers of the Meiji Period that left us printed catalogues of their body of work—all influential and productive—only one included a photo of coaling, Teijiro Takagi (高木庭次郎). His short section for Nagasaki features “341 Coaling in the Harbour”. That is it. Just a single photo. Kimbei Kusakabe (日下部金兵衛, 1841–1934) and Nobukuni Enami (江南信國, 1859–1929) listed none.

In the 1880s and 1890s foreigners already described the coaling in Nagasaki in written accounts, so why did these photographers—who almost exclusively catered to foreign visitors—not include photographs in their printed catalogues of a scene that seems to have greatly fascinated their target market?

Kimbei (his first name is generally used) started his business sometime between 1878 and 1880 (Meiji 11–13), Enami established his studio in 1892 (Meiji 25), and Takagi took over Tamamura’s Kobe branch in 1904 (Meiji 37). Could their starting dates explain things, suggesting that tengutori mostly attracted attention from the 1900s? The catalogue dates seem to rule this out. Kimbei’s catalogue does indeed date from the 1890s, but Enami’s catalogues are from the 1900s, as is Takagi’s.

Perhaps these photographers did not consider tengutori as “Japanese” enough as they generally focused on what tourists considered the “Real Japan.” This could be an explanation as they also did not feature photos of mining, even though they did publish photos of just about every other aspect of Japanese society.

Interestingly, both Enami and Takagi did include photos of modern silk factories in their catalogues. But silk itself was seen as traditional Japanese—it was used for the ultimate symbol of Japan, the kimono.

Perhaps foreign tourists did not yet ask for photographs of tengutori?

One more important observation to share is that although we do not know who photographed the postcards, all the stereoviews of tengutori that I have seen were taken by foreign photographers. There are photographs of female dockworkers taken by Japanese photographers after the end of WWII, though.

As you see, there are many questions that I am still unable to answer. The answers, if we ever find them, may reveal more interesting information about how tengutori was seen and experienced.

If this postscript has piqued your interest in the history of early photography in Japan, see Empire of Color where these photographers, and others, are introduced.

Glossary

Note

“Oki-nakashi” and “gonzō” may be considered discriminatory expressions today. These terms are introduced in this article for historical accuracy.

Recommended Reading

1. 平原直(2000年). 物流史談 : 物流の歴史に学ぶ人間の知恵. 東京：流通研究社.
2. 林えいだい(2018年). 関門港の女沖仲仕たち. 東京：新評論. (Features photos of female stevedores in Moji Port between 1975 and 1983.)
3. 林えいだい(1983年). 海峡の女たち―関門港沖仲仕の社会史. 福岡：葦書房.
4. 井上佳子(2011). 三池炭鉱「月の記憶」そして与論を出た人びと. 福岡：石風社.
5. Phipps, Catherine L. (2015). Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Asia Center.

Note

In Butsuryū no Rekishi ni Manabu Ningen no Chie (物流の歴史に学ぶ人間の知恵, Human Wisdom from the History of Logistics), Hirahara writes that tengutori was developed by laborers from Yoron Island working in Kuchinotsu. However, these laborers moved to Kuchinotsu after a typhoon flattened their island in 1898 (Meiji 31). My research has found detailed descriptions of tengutori in Nagasaki dating back to 1887 (Meiji 20). The earliest mention that I found was published on June 24, 1876 (Meiji 9), two years before Kuchinotsu was opened as a coaling port. This confirms that tengutori was born in Nagasaki.

Notes

³⁸ 平原直(2000年). 物流史談 : 物流の歴史に学ぶ人間の知恵. 東京：流通研究社, 104.

³⁹ 林えいだい(1983年). 海峡の女たち―関門港沖仲仕の社会史. 福岡：葦書房, 63.

“The number of shelves used depended on the height of the ship, ranging from three to twelve boards.” Phipps, Catherine L. (2015). Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Asia Center, 174.

For comparison, the Titanic, launched in 1911 (Meiji 44), measured 46,329 gross registered tonnage.

⁴⁰ 林えいだい(1983年). 海峡の女たち―関門港沖仲仕の社会史. 福岡：葦書房, 64.

⁴¹ 平原直(2000年). 物流史談 : 物流の歴史に学ぶ人間の知恵. 東京：流通研究社, 103.

⁴² ibid, 104.

⁴³ 林えいだい(1983年). 海峡の女たち―関門港沖仲仕の社会史. 福岡：葦書房, 66.

「この籠回しは、一番熟練した沖仲仕でないとうまく行かない。棚上からトモとオモテまではかなりの距離がある。少しでも強い風が吹きつけると流されるのだ。彼女たちが投げると、バイスケはくるくる回りながら、入鍬の足元に落ちてびたっと止まる。入鍬は、片足でそっと受け止めるか、雁爪で押さえて止める。」

⁴⁴ 平原直(2000年). 物流史談 : 物流の歴史に学ぶ人間の知恵. 東京：流通研究社, 103.

⁴⁵ ibid, 120, 121.

「時間ナいっちよも（全然）きまりござっせん。日本の船は午後六時か七時になると、仕事ばやめて帰られますが、西洋の船はあせがります（出航を急ぎます）から、石炭を全部積みこんでしまうまでは、夜一二時過ぎても、徹夜になっても、やめられまっせん。二晩でも、三晩でも、徹夜することもあります。」

⁴⁶ ibid, 122.

「長屋で、真ん中は廊下で、人の通るごとなっとって、部屋はその両側にありました。部屋は六畳敷ぐらいで、どんなに家族が多くても、一間（ひとま）だけ。部屋の中にはクド（へっつい）がありましたから、家族の多か家は、ほんにきつかったです。そして畳はなくて、板の間でした。莚もありませんから、船からアンペラばもってきて、それを敷いて、寝ておりました。」

⁴⁷ 林えいだい(1983年). 海峡の女たち―関門港沖仲仕の社会史. 福岡：葦書房, 57.

「刀というものは減多に使うものじゃない。自分に身の危険が迫った時だけじゃ。俺の許可なく見たり出したりしたらいかんぞ 」

⁴⁸ 平原直(2000年). 物流史談 : 物流の歴史に学ぶ人間の知恵. 東京：流通研究社, 123–124.

「昔は、仕事の上で、喧嘩ばかりでした。喧嘩になると、雁爪やらショーベル（シャベルのこと）ばもってきましたもん。かなわんときゃ、内地の人は、そげんとば（そんなものまで）持ってきますでしょう。だから（与論の人は内地の人を）海に投げよりました。喧嘩ですもん。力では負けませんでした。仕事でも与論の人は、（内地の人に）負けませんでした。女でもね。」

Published November 26, 2023
Updated July 18, 2024 9:28 PM

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