The man in a cap peddled with a carrying pole in the residential area of Jakarta

Hawker carrying a yoke
Hawker carrying a yoke
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One of the things I occasionally see in Southeast Asia that I don't often see in Japan is a carrying pole. A container such as a basket is hung from both ends of the pole and is carried at a fulcrum while maintaining balance.

In Japan, many people used to carry a carrying pole to do business. I don't see it at all nowadays. Since they didn't need to pay for the rights to set up a shop, they could easily start a business. Many people who did business with a carrying pole are depicted in the ukiyoe titled "53 Stations of the Tōkaidō Nipponbashi Morning Scene" by Utagawa Hiroshige, as well as in "Shin bandai daidou zui, Odawara-cho" by Katsushika Hokusai. In the Edo period, there were people doing business here and there, carrying poles were seen in many places.

So I met a hawker in Jakarta who was carrying a pole. When I walked around Jakarta, I saw as many people carrying poles as those who were doing business at mobile stalls. The man in this photo was one of them. This man was peddling in a residential area, carrying a yoke. He was dressed in a 21st-century style, but the carrying pole itself was probably the same as the one depicted in the ukiyo-e prints.

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日本語
Sep 2020 INDONESIA PEOPLE

PHOTO DATA

No

11678

Shooting Date

Jan 2020

Posted On

September 24, 2020

Modified On

August 30, 2023

Place

Jakarta, Indonesia

Genre

Portrait Photography

Camera

SONY ALPHA 7R II

Lens

ZEISS BATIS 2/40 CF

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