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Last Modified 25/02/05

 
What's Kotobuki?

The location of Kotobuki
The area called "Kotobuki" is about the middle of Yokohama city and administratively consist of Kotobuki-cho, Ougi-cho and Matsukage-cho. It is close to China-town, Yokohama Baseball Stadium and the government office building of Yokohama-city. It is only about 5 minute walk from Ishikawa-cho station of JR Negishi-line.
Kotobuki is the third largest doya town after Kamagasaki in Osaka, San'ya in Tokyo. The area is approximately 400m2. There are about 90 doya (doss houses) and 6,500 persons are living. Most of them are day labourers.

Day labourers
Yokohama is famous as a port town. Many labourers have been working not only as dock workers, stevedores but also as navvies. Kotobuki is the place in which such labours, who have contributed to high growth of Japanese economy after the war, have been living. They are the base of our lives through many kinds of jobs such as construction of houses, buildings, parks, bridges and wiring works, dock works.
Day workers are employed in the morning and fired in the evening. There is no guarantee of their lives. They overwork in the job so-called "3K", which means "Kitsui" (hard), "Kitanai" (dirty) and "Kiken" (dangerous). The rate of industrial accidents on construction sites is much higher than other jobs. But the responsibility about employer's administration of safety has been left a matter unsolved because of the multiplex subcontracted system. It appears rare that injured workers can get compensation for their accidents and absences. In addition, there are unpaid jobs and concealment of accidents.
Japanese recession since 1990 let day workers face the difficulty of finding jobs. Naka Welfare Office, which gives vocational clinic service, has about 500 unemployed persons asking its advise everyday (and they are 700 on every Friday). They have to face to marginal life condition, for instance, they need to form a line and wait hours in order to get a pan-ken.

The history of Kotobuki
I would say "Kotobuki" is an ironical name, as it means "celebration". There is a historical reason why the town in called like that. After the port of Yokohama opened, the scale of the urban area became too small and even foreign countries complained about the problem. Therefore land was reclaimed from Minami-Hitotsu-Numa, which was a control pond for flooding. But Japan was unfortunately in a severe recession when the difficult construction finished. Nobody could afford to purchase the real estates, so the investors were ruined. By the way, the land was divided into 7 blocks and the names were Matsukage (pine's shadow), Kotobuki (celebration), Ougi (a folding fan), Okina (a venerable sage), Furou (eternal youth), Bandai (eternity), Yoshihama (the fortune beach). Those names reflected investors' dreams.
In 1945 (the end of the Second World War), Kotobuki became a burnt-out area. The US forces requisitioned and used there as a storage space for materials. The requisitioning ended in 1955. There were many day labourers just after the end of the war in Yokohama because of war damage, unemployment, demobilization, and the existence of the US forces. They employed 1000 day labourers as stevedores that carried military freights everyday, because equipment in dock land had been destroyed. In addition, they carried food gain (school meals). In 1950s, Korean War caused demand for Japanese military industry and the export. And high growth of Japanese economy started about 1960. Many unemployed persons gathered in Yokohama from all over the country during those periods. The port functioned day and night. Tough labourers earned decent wages.
It is thought that the first doya, Kotobuki-so, was built in 1956 and then 63 doya were built by 1960. Day labourers who did not have their own houses started to live there. A public employment security office was moved from Noge to Kotobuki in 1959, and activities of illegal job offers were also moved later. This is the story of how Kotobuki, the town of doya and yoseba, was formed.

References
  • Kotobuki ni Ikite (The mean of this title is "A life in Kotobuki")
  • Kotobuki Kyodo Hoiku -- Kotobuki Doya-gai deno 9-nenkan (The mean of this title is "Kotobuki Common Day Care -- 9 years at Doya area in Kotobuki")
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