*The Miner* (1916): Voices Lost Beneath the Earth

In 1916, Motoo Miyajima published *The Miner*, a novel that directly portrayed the lives of miners. The story is set in a mining community dominated by dark tunnels and grueling labor. Miyajima himself had worked as a clerk at a tungsten mine in Ibaraki Prefecture, and that experience formed the foundation of the work. The protagonist, Kinji Ishii, is a man who once fought bravely in a miners’ strike but, after experiencing betrayal by his comrades, becomes a wandering miner. Even at a new mine, his resentment toward his fellow workers and his loneliness deepen, and he sinks into a violent life of drinking and fighting. However, he is not portrayed merely as a rogue. The story depicts the process by which the darkness of the mine shafts, the exhaustion of labor, poverty, mistrust among fellow workers, and tension with management gradually drive a single human being to the brink. *The Miner* served as an important starting point for Taishō-period labor literature in that it portray ed workers not as symbols of an ideal, but as flesh-and-blood human beings grappling with anger and vulnerability.