Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Sakubei Yamamoto collection
Inscribed 2011
What is it
This collection of paintings and diaries is a unique
historical source on the coal-mining industry in Japan
as seen from the perspective of one worker, Sakubei
Yamamoto, who was also a talented visual observer.
Why were they inscribed
His factual accounts in words and pictures represent
a memory of Japan’s industrialization that had
ramifications for the region and the world. The collection
shows the impact of Western technologies when
transferred to a traditional Eastern culture, an issue
of continuing global significance.
Where are they
Tagawa City Coal Mining Historical Museum and
Fukuoka Prefectural University, Tagawa, Japan
Coal mining was an essential part of the rapid emergence
of industry in Japan from 1850 onwards, when the country
was opened up to the Western world. Japan is unusual, if
not unique, among non-Western nations in undertaking
this industrial transformation on its own terms, without
being colonized and without substantial foreign
investment. The rapid expansion of coal mining demanded
a much increased workforce, and miners during the
period recorded by Sakubei Yamamoto included former
rural workers, both men and women and their children,
tradesmen, ex-convicts and foreign labourers.
418 Sakubei Yamamoto collection
� An illustration by Sakubei Yamamoto showing women
sorting coal. The belt moved at walking speed and the
women worked twelve-hour shifts.