Burakumin

Burakumin (部落民, buraku community + min people), or hisabetsu buraku (被差別部落 "discriminated communities") is a social minority group. Its historical name Eta (穢多, literally, "full of filth") is considered today discriminative but still used. Less commonly they are called Mikaihō buraku (未解放部落 "unliberated communities", used mainly by communists) or "unfreed buraku." They are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaido and residents of Korean and Chinese descent.

According to an investigation report (1993) by the Japanese Government, there are 4,442 Buraku communities, 298,385 Buraku households, and 892,751 Burakumin.

The term 部落 buraku literally refers to a small, generally rural commune. Even today, old people living in villages of northern and central regions of Japan refer to these villages as buraku, showing that this word was originally not pejorative. Today, however, this term is usually shorthand for the hisabetsu buraku people and the use of the word in any medium is frowned on or even prohibited, owing to pressure from rights groups.

Some burakumin call buraku as "mura" ("villages") - they call burakumin as "mura-no-mon" ("village people").

They are descendants of pre-modern outcaste hereditary occupational groups, such as butchers, leather workers, and certain entertainers. Discrimination against these occupational groups arose historically because of Buddhist prohibitions against killing and Shinto notions of kegare ("taint"), as well as governmental attempts at social control. They occupied the lowest level of the social hierarchy of feudal Japan. They were housed in separate settlements and were generally avoided by the rest of Japanese society. When dealing with members of other castes, they were expected to display signs of subservience, such as the removal of headwear. However, because they had an unconditional monopoly in their trades, some succeeded economically and obtained Samurai status through marrying or outright purchase of troubled houses.

Their presence in Japan is small, partly because Japan's society has a comparative lack of hierarchical social classes. Also, they may be able to move out of the social class if they work to achieve that.

Historically, Burakumin were not liable for taxation in the feudal times including the Tokugawa period, because the taxation system was based on payment in rice crop yields and they weren't granted the right to possess rice fields. Some Burakumin were also called kawaramono, because they lived along a river bank that couldn't be turned into rice field. They also had exclusive rights in the Buraku industry. Some historians point out that such exclusive rights originated in ancient times, granted by shrines, temples, kuge, or the imperial court which held authorities before the Shogunate system was established.

Because they have not spread widely in Japan, the discrimination against them varies greatly according to the region. The discrimination is said to be most severe in West Japan. Branches of burakumin's rights groups exist in all parts of Japan except for Hokkaido, Tohoku, Yamanashi, Toyama, Okinawa.

In some areas, Burakumin hold a majority; they account for over 70 percent of all residents of Yoshikawa in Kochi Prefecture. In Oto in Fukuoka Prefecture, they account for over 60 percent.

During the Tokugawa period, such people were required to live in special communes and, like the rest of the population, were bound by sumptuary laws based on the inheritance of their social class. In an 1859 court case described by author Shimazaki Toson, a magistrate declared that "An eta is worth 1/7 of an ordinary person."

In an attempt to modernize Japan, the Meiji government abolished most derogatory names applied to these discriminated communities in 1871, but the new laws had limited effect on the social discrimination faced by the former outcastes and their descendants. The laws, however, did eliminate the economic monopolies they had over certain occupations.

Prejudice against eta lingered into the modern era, and according to human rights workers is still a factor today. It has been alleged that traditionalist families in western regions of Japan still check the backgrounds of potential in-laws to prevent intermarriage with descendants of eta, and Chinese or Korean families.

According to David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro, "Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1986)", Burakumin account for about 70 percent of the members of Yamaguchi-gumi, the biggest yakuza syndicate in Japan. Some people have opined that discrimination against the burakumin is justified because they have (it is claimed) disproportionate involvement with the yakuza.

In High and Low (Japanese title Tengoku to jigoku, literally "Heaven and Hell") [1] (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0057565/), a movie adapted (1963) from Evan Hunter's King's Ransom, Akira Kurosawa made a political statement by having the main character work as a shoe industry executive who rose from humble origins as a simple leather worker, clearly implying (to Japanese audiences) the main character's burakumin status. The story has the main character selflessly sacrifice his fortune in order to save his driver's son, showing that burakumin are as heroic as anyone else.

Author Lian Hearn depicts a fictional feudal country highly similar to that of Japan's own history in the three-book series Tales of the Otori (2003-2004). The series depicts a caste system wherein "untouchables" live outside of mainstream society. The protagonist develops a friendship with one such outcast, a tanner who lives and works with other tanners in riverside settlements.

The plight of the burakumin has also been presented in Hashi no nai kawa [2] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104395/) ("The River With No Bridge") a novel by Sue Sumii, which was made into a movie in 1969, 1970 and 1992. This refers to the fact that areas they lived in were often separated by a river and a bridge to cross this was rarely constructed.

Among burakumin's rights groups, The Buraku Liberation League (The BLL; Buraku Kaihou Doumei) is one of the most militant. The BLL is widely viewed as extremist, and several BLL activists have been arrested for violence. In 1990, Karel van Wolfren criticized the BLL in a book named "The Enigma of Japanese Power", so the BLL demanded the publisher to stop publication of the book, and van Wolfren condemned this incident as "an international scandal".

In 1988, the BLL formed IMADR (International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism). The BLL wanted IMADR to be authorized as a UN NGO (United Nations Non-Government Organization), but in 1991, the All Japan Federation of Buraku Liberation Movements (Zenkairen; Zenkoku Buraku Kaihou Undou Rengoukai) informed the United Nations about the crimes the BLL had committed.

See also: Danzaemon (弾左衛門), a leader of buraku people in Tokyo, Buraku liberation movement (部落解放運動)

External links

• The Headquarters of Buraku Liberation League (http://www.bll.gr.jp/)
• An online television script serial called Banana Chan; its main characters are Burakumin. (http://www.bananachan.com/)

References

• Shimazaki Toson, The Broken Commandment

Credit

Text originally from Library of Congress, Country Studies (http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html).de:Buraku es:Burakumin fr:Burakumin ja:部落問題 sv:Burakumin