Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

mining technology, as seen from a miner’s perspective.
They depict labour disputes, changing working practices,
the differing attitudes of management and labour, and
foreign labour issues; and reflect the many changes
in the coal mining industry in the first half of the 20th
century. They also show the daily life and pastimes of
miners’ families and their response to industrialization.
Because of the rapid development of the Japanese mining
industry, the vast majority of miners came from other
backgrounds and the customs, traditions and superstitions
they brought with them to the mines are portrayed as well.
The paintings give an immediacy to understanding
the impact of industrialization on those who worked in
the mines, something which is not usually present in the
written word, and not represented at all in official records.
In conjunction with the diaries, they reflect a period of
enormous change, presenting graphically memories and
records from the turn of the century to after the Second
World War. Japan’s experience is a microcosm of the
fundamental changes in social and cultural conditions that
working class labour experienced in many non-Western
countries when industries developed based on Western
technologies. The Sakubei paintings are a startling, rare
and authentic representation of that experience and time.
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