078 Women at Coal Pits in the Old Days #23: Carrying Coal with a Shouldering Basket Called a Tebo

The shouldering basket called a tebo was used from the late Meiji era (1868-1912) until the Taisho era (1912-1926) mainly in carrying out coal from descending coalfaces with thick coal beds. This job was also too hard for untrained and delicate women. The tebo can be sometimes seen also today [as of the 1960’s]. The maximum capacity of the tebo was 60 kg. Some miners used tebos made of zinc plates at saturated coalfaces.
At that time, old lamps made of tin using kerosene (paraffin oil) or a mixture of kerosene and rapeseed oil were not used, but gas lamps using carbide were used instead.
Safety lanterns using volatile oil were also used in middle or large-scale coal pits which were in danger of gas explosions, and phosphorous matches were installed in them.