(解説文要約)
空の炭函が降りてくると後山たちは函の取り合いをするため、喧嘩が絶えませんでした。
そこで明治37年頃、函を平等に分けるルール作りがなされたようです。
余った炭函は左側に描かれているように手ぬぐいでくじ引きをして分け合っていました。
明治37年というと日露戦争開戦の年。
国民が一つになろうという風潮からではなかったか、と作兵衛翁は記しています。
当時はヤマに限らず女性の間で、前髪が庇(ヒサシ)のように飛び出す髪型が流行っていたそうです。
Quarrels among the Atoyama, or the carriers of the coal, often would break out who's turn it was to use the next empty coal skip. Therefore, around 1904, a rule was set on how to distribute the skips equally.
As depicted in this painting, carriers would use their towels in a drawing to decide who would get the next coal skip.
1904 marks the year that the Russo-Japanese War broke out.
Sakubei remarks that this cooperative move could be seen as a national trend
when Japanese citizens were trying to strengthen their feelings of nationalism.
Meanwhile, on the right side of this painting in the maple leaf shaped frame,
you can see another trend that was popular for the time: the hairstyle among the women.
They wore the front of their hair jutting out some what like the eaves of a roof top.