A seller of water

Osaka
(Japan)

Until around Meiji 20 (1887), there were various places where people could draw water along the Yodo River. Inside of the city "water shop", which meant also water sellers, put buckets and boxes in their "water boat" to draw water and every morning, they distributed the water to their customers by the wooden buckets. People bought the drawn water exchange to branded cards that were made of wood. In Meiji 28 (1895) the modern waterworks was established using Yodo River, Lake Biwa water and thus the water shops lost their jobs. (A. Kobayashi)