（解説文要約）
明治三十一年頃の「降参言わせごっこ」という遊びを描いた作品です。
男子として降参する事は死にまさる恥としていた当時の日本。

少年たちはどんなに苦しめられても降参しなかったそうです。

学校での休み時間は十五分。授業始めの木板がコンコンとなるまで押えこんでいたそうです。

明治三十三年頃より木板は鐘にかわったと作兵衛翁は記録しています。

 

 

 

The children around 1898 in this painting are “playing to make another admit defeat.”
Japanese men at that time considered admitting defeat to be a shame more intolerable than death.

Japanese boys at that time also would not surrender no matter how hard they were tortured in this play.

The boy pinned against the ground never gave up until the wooden gong was struck to announce the beginning of the class after a 15 minutes’ break at school.
Sakubei says that the wooden gong was replaced with a bell with a tongue around 1900.