おわい屋や

noun

night soil collector

Historical occupation; colloquial term for someone who collected human waste for use as fertilizer. Now obsolete in practice.

• 江え戸ど時じ代だいには、おわい屋やが町まちのし尿にょうを集あつめて農のう家かに売うっていた。

  In the Edo period, night soil collectors gathered human waste from towns and sold it to farmers.