Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- List of Maps
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on translation and anonymity
- Map 1
- Map 2
- Introduction
- 1 Chikuho: A Short Description
- 2 The Chikuho Revivalists
- 3 Idegawa
- 4 A Short History of Coalmining: Chikuho in Context
- 5 The Picture Show Man
- 6 A Culture of Violence
- 7 H-san Mine: Violence and Repression
- 8 The Bathing Master
- 9 Labour Conflict: The Case of the K-san Union Action
- 10 D-san and the Students
- 11 Mizuno
- 12 The Y-san Disaster
- 13 Sono
- 14 Welfare
- 15 Welfare in Chikuho
- 16 A Yakuza Story
- Conclusion
- Bibliographical Essay
- Bibliography
- List of Informants
- Index
- Plate section
3 - Idegawa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- List of Maps
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on translation and anonymity
- Map 1
- Map 2
- Introduction
- 1 Chikuho: A Short Description
- 2 The Chikuho Revivalists
- 3 Idegawa
- 4 A Short History of Coalmining: Chikuho in Context
- 5 The Picture Show Man
- 6 A Culture of Violence
- 7 H-san Mine: Violence and Repression
- 8 The Bathing Master
- 9 Labour Conflict: The Case of the K-san Union Action
- 10 D-san and the Students
- 11 Mizuno
- 12 The Y-san Disaster
- 13 Sono
- 14 Welfare
- 15 Welfare in Chikuho
- 16 A Yakuza Story
- Conclusion
- Bibliographical Essay
- Bibliography
- List of Informants
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Idegawa was born in Kokura, Kita Kyushu, in 1932, the only daughter of a post office worker. When she was 12, after their home was destroyed in Allied bombing raids, the family moved to Kurate-machi, where they stayed for a period of about six months. At that time Kurate was both a coal town and an agricultural centre. Idegawa told me about her life in an interview in 1987.
My father's family came from Kurate. They were farmers. He had been brought up here, so he knew everyone in town, but I knew no one when we first came here. I looked for children I could be friends with. The school was overcrowded (there would have been more than 60 children in one class), and of these about half were from coalmining families, and half from farmers' families. The children from the coalmining families were open and friendly with me because they were used to moving from place to place and seeing lots of new faces, but the farmers' children were quite cold towards me. They were always so controlled and stuck with their own groups.
Of course I wanted to play with the coalmining children, so I often used to go to the tanjū to play after school. The Koyama Tanjū in those days was a very primitive place compared with the village where I was staying, and I was shocked by the terrible conditions the people lived in. When my parents found out that I was going to play with the coalmining children they were angry and said that I must not go to that dirty and dangerous place. They were very aware of the difference between ‘normal people’ (ippanjin) and coalminers (tankofu). […]
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- Chapter
- Information
- Undermining the Japanese MiracleWork and Conflict in a Japanese Coal-mining Community, pp. 51 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994