Burakumin

Japanese Deep State of Mind and Group Psychology

An Introduction

An issue of buraku is an important element of Japanese culture indicating the axis of the culture. At the same time, it’s a new element to understand about Japanese.
Until now, an issue of buraku has been focused on discrimination. A prosecution and a protest have been influential with the issue. The discrimination is still deep rooted, and it happens at a difficult to see places. So, a prosecution and a protest are effective. But the real problem to be solved about the issue of buraku is not only discrimination. There is an important buraku culture to support whole Japanese culture. Parts of the buraku culture or an individual buraku culture were pointed out sometimes before. But there was no point of view to see the whole buraku culture systematically till now.
The whole buraku culture has been supporting Japanese culture, and it is a big clue to find out never pointed cultural systems and thoughts. At the same time, the whole buraku culture makes clear about Japanese deep state of mind that was vague before. And it will be a certain clue to investigate an abstract principle of buraku discrimination. The whole buraku culture will also bears a ‘sound view’ to overcome the long time fixed discriminative prejudice, and it will solve the issue of buraku.
This report is about experiences and a process of thought of a burakumin who has been thinking about why there is discrimination and how we can overcome it. At a certain stage, I noticed that there is a buraku culture, or buraku civilization in a history of burakumin. And now, I try to make it clear as much as possible.

 

Ｉ．Japanese Deep State of Mind and Group Psychology

 

1. An issue of buraku and universality of it

 

Japanese hardly ever tried to break a taboo subjectively, and to over come it. In our time, there seems to be no taboo, and people think such a taboo will be gone spontaneously. That’s because Japanese imitate Western culture and value, and we import and fix Western politics, culture, and education. But such Western things cannot be said that they become established in Japanese life or Japanese deep state of mind. I see a double standard there. Between the standard, there is something to left behind or a psychological blank that has not been touched. Such psychological blank is connected to Japanese character like vagueness, being too dependent on somebody’s kindness, and choosing his public position and his private intentions. If we leave the situation as it is, the psychological blank will never be gone. If we believe in universality in Western culture, and it’s value, we have to break taboo in our history and in the depth of our life subjectively at the end to reach the universality. If we use the word ‘ universality’ here, it should be used as a philosophy.
Japanese principal taboo is the Emperor system that had pointed out before. The other taboo is an issue of buraku that is said to be unsolved still now. Many people talked about the Emperor system. Emperor is taboo as an existence which never commits an error or which is a holy and clean existence. Symbolic Emperor after World War II has a strong holy image.
On the other side, an issue of buraku has hardly ever discussed except by a few people. Imitating Western culture nowadays affects peoples’ thought. People think that there is no more problem about buraku. Even though there is a few problem left, they will be solved spontaneously. Some people are interested in pointing out prejudice, discrimination, and complaints against those. Still now, there isn’t a sound view about positiveness of an issue of buraku, buraku history, culture, and thought.
Therefore, when we think about Japanese taboo, an issue of buraku is a new point of view, and it takes on a new meaning nowadays. New point of view, an issue of buraku, will be a clue to overcome the taboo of the Emperor system, and to build up a new axis of culture and to achieve a consensus.
Under the circumstance right now, my idea might sounds like an empty theory. For that reason, I would like to show the recent data about the discrimination against buraku. You will find the untouched truth showing Japanese character that cannot break a taboo and their deep state of mind.
My interest about this report is how Japanese change after trying to break or achieving to break taboo. If I cannot describe how they change after breaking taboo, we won’t be able to say that the discrimination against buraku would overcome. Also, I won’t be able to show an universal culture and value which Japanese society has inside out.
Let me prescribe what an issue of buraku is in current meaning.
① Discrimination begins from occupation difference.
② Above difference is fixed socially, and institutionally.
③ Such fixation is historic heredity. Nowadays, such heredity has a structural value (= cultural value) as customs and manners.
④ Discrimination occurs against a certain community. Individual difference means nothing under the discrimination.
⑤ Capitalism in Japan couldn’t liberalize essentially. It is growing with the structure of equality, and discrimination. (Buraku Sabetsu o Kokufuku suru Shisou)
Criterion of burakumin is a status system in the Edo era such as eta,and hinin. ‘Liberation of Senmin’ in 1871 meant erasing the status system of Edo era, but the status system has never forgotten among Japanese. Especially, matrimonial discrimination is still incurable.
Eta and hinin was different in Edo period. Prejudice and discrimination nowadays is not always same to the above two statuses. Difference between two statuses is important but there are many common themes. I would like to talk about the common themes now. When we find the way out, analysis about the difference between eta status and hinin status begins. It will be a theme to solve later.
‘ Buraku’ is a word used also for calling a community like a farming village or fishing village. We call cities ‘ Machi’. Farming, fishing, and mountain villages are called‘ Mura’. And, villages of eta and hinin status in Edo period were called ‘buraku’ to make clear the confusion.

 

2. Discrimination nowadays

 

Typical discrimination nowadays appears at the marriage. You can see the situation in the following data.
The attitude survey in 1993 (latest) asked single person about marrying a burakumin. Result is as follows.
① I never marry burakumin. 2.8%
② I won’t marry burakumin if somebody opposes. 15.9%
19% of young people is negative about marrying burakumin. Following is the data about parents’ reaction when their children decide to marry burakumin.
③ never approve a marriage. 5%
④ I do not approve a marriage if family member or relatives oppose. 7.7%
⑤ I might give up to oppose if my child insist on marrying burakumin. 41%
(Tenkanki o Mukaeta Dowamondai Supervised by General Affairs Department Chiiki kaizen Taisaku Shitsu) Number⑤means parents’ opposition against marrying burakumin. It’s surprisingly high.
③＋④＋⑤=53.7% of parent is negative about the marriage. It shows the deep root of discrimination against buraku. Most of the people obey the opposition around them like family or relatives. It’s a characteristics of the buraku discrimination. We can see Japanese group psychology in the above data and that is the deep state of Japanese mind.
On the other hand, 45.7% parent said, “I respect child’s decision. Parent should not force his or her opinion.” Still, people who discriminate burakumin is more than half. But, it’s a better result than the survey done in 1985 that is performed in 36 prefectures out of Japanese 47 prefectures. The 36 prefecture have Dowa chiku(= buraku area). The result of survey done in 1985 was 34.2% of parent answered that they respect child’s decision. It’s a good finding. But a parent who knows and has to teach their children about freedom, impartiality, and human rights should be respected opposes their child marrying burakumin. There is a possibility of choosing public position and private intention under the result of investigations.
There is a recent typical example of discrimination. Nonaka Hiromu had been an important politician who was once a Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party. Four years ago, he was said to be a candidate for the next Prime Minister. But, he suddenly left politics recently. In June 2004, the book about Hiromu Nonaka as a burakumin was published. Title of the book is ‘Hiromu Nonaka Discrimination and Authority’ (Written by Akira Uozumi, Published by Koudansha)
Hiromu Nonaka didn’t hide his hometown. He attended meeting to solve an issue of buraku. When the original of the book was published in a monthly magazine, he glared at the writer and said, “Do you know how my family is going through hardships due to your writing about me as a burakumin.” In the book, we can also find the episode that Taro Asou, the candidate for the next Prime Minister in 2001,said, “We cannot make that burakumin a Prime Minister of Japan.” Hiromu Nonaka didn’t go for candidacy.
The writer, Uozumi, thinks the political world has heavy discrimination. In a sense, politicians are ordinary people. But I am surprised, and feel anger to the fact about Japanese top politicians. It’s the typical discrimination against buraku nowadays. That’s what Nonaka called ‘hardships.’
It seems like that there was no direct discrimination to the family of Nonaka caused by the book or monthly magazine. But Nonaka said that his family went through hardship. Can you believe it’s what one of the top politician in Japan said?
‘Hardships’ is an assumption of burakumin about Japanese deep state of mind that usually do not appear. In many cases, such assumption is taken negative as a prejudiced impression, or a jealousy of discriminated people. But burakumin never knows when the discrimination occurs and have to swallow an insult. What Taro Asou said is a typical example of a ‘hardships.’ Under such circumstances, thinking about Japanese deep state of mind and group psychology is a priority before criticizing a jealousy of burakumin.
Also, Nonaka’s case shows social feature of discrimination against buraku because he was a real important figure of power. Discrimination occurs not because of the difference between rich or poor, nor social status. Education, race, and religion doesn’t matter neither.
If you take a look at the history, the discrimination came from the social status of Edo period. Before that, there were occupations that touches ‘Kegare’ (=uncleanness) and ‘Kiyome’ (=purify) it. Such occupations were fixed as a social status, and the people who had those occupations became a subject of taboo. The occupation became hereditary. The theme nowadays is how to break the taboo.

 

1. ‘Kegare’ and taboo

 

The Emperor system and an issue of buraku are same kind of taboo. Regarding them as taboo is the correspondence to Kegare(=a concept involved in chaos). We normally don’t use the word ‘Kegare’ any more now, but we regard it as a taboo. Such a correspondence to Kegare, manners, customs, and culture nowadays shows Japanese deep state of mind. And such things are affecting subconscious.
In Japan, death of animals or human beings, diseases, bleeding, and breaking social standard are called Kegare since ancient times. To avoid Kegare, people regard them as taboo. It’s hatred. Regarding them as taboo is considered to amplify the image of uncleanness, filthiness, and fear. Everything alive meet Kegare. And to take care of such Kegare, a job or occupation occurs. People engaged in such occupation and touch Kegare is regarded also as Kegare. That’s a conception of touching filthiness. Above ideas made people to think that it’s a taboo to touch Kegare same as things called Kegare. And it was institutionalized in ‘Engishiki’ in 10th century. Engishiki is the text of standards that tried to rebuild the Emperor system.
In ancient society, such conception of taboo was a criterion of aristocracy in which the Emperor was the noblest. Engishiki became the text, and it penetrated to the general public as public morals in the medieval period. In modern times, or the beginning of Edo period, social statuses are united with occupations. It’s typical that a category of occupations like warriors, farmers, artisans and tradesmen shows statuses of the people. The occupation to take care of Kegare (called Kiyome) was fixed as a status. It’s the status of Eta. Status of Eta became a target of hatred and discrimination, and it was regarded as a taboo by the concept of touching filthiness, Kegare. Therefore the status of Eta was called ‘Kegare by nature’ in Edo period.
Even in modern times, the ideas and consciousness to backup the taboo and above old system had not overcome, nor examined scientifically and ideologically. What is worse, we don’t know why there is a discrimination against buraku nowadays.
Imitating Western culture made people to talk about freedom and equality. But, on the other hand, absolute Emperor system made an opposing structure between Emperor and burakumin as holy being and humble being. And it can be considered that such structure has been an ordinary manners and customs unconsciously. Democracy and the symbolic Emperor system after the World War II didn’t affect the above opposing structure. And people have a tendency to think that the discrimination against buraku is a small problem, and it will be dissolved naturally without doing anything about it.
People who discriminate burakumin about marriage do not say clear reason.
“ You better not marry a person from buraku.” Or, they just say, “Such a marriage is not good.” Some people say, “We cannot apologize to our ancestor.” The people who are conscious of their relatives or colleagues at work say “We will look bad to the people around us.” As a background of such opinion, we sometimes hear like followings. “Blood of burakumin is dirty.” “People in buraku are scary.” About the condition that there is discrimination in finding a job, people also say, “You won’t have a good life.” Such consciousness hardly appears to the surface as a stream in a discriminating phenomenon. In an ordinary life, such sayings come into our ear as a background of the things that happen somewhere. It’s usually hidden. There is a scene that we can hear such a stream of consciousness. It’s a denunciation against discrimination by private movement. I have heard of a denunciation against discrimination many times in my hometown, and as a newspaperman.
In 1988, three junior high schools in Yokohama city had almost same discriminating problems. And Buraku Liberation League in Kanagawa prefecture denunciated them. Detailed story about the denunciation is published as ‘Document Sabetsu kyudan’ (written by Yoshikazu Kawamoto, edited by Buraku Liberation League in Kanagawa prefecture published by Akashi Shoten)
9th graders go on a school trip to Kyoto and Nara before their graduation. Teachers who take them to the trip warn students not to fight during the trip. To make the warning effective, they said that there were many burakus in Nara and Kyoto. And they should behave at such scary places. Teachers of three junior high schools did not know each other. They had never met before. But they spoke almost same things for the same purpose. We can see Japanese deep state of mind or the subconscious. They also confessed about their imagination related to buraku history like following.
“ We have hatred or fear to the people who skin and tan animals. People in buraku are cruel. And they inherit such blood.”
Discriminating letters or notices have been sent anonymously to members of liberation movement in Tokyo for several years. Following is what was written in a letter sent to burakumin of Kunitachi city in May 2004. Kunitachi city is known as a school zone in Tokyo.
“We found out that you are eta hinins by our inquiry. Eta is not a human even though it looks like a human. (omit) Don’t act like human being. You are eta. Dirty, stinky, cheeky, and shameful eta hinin is a maggot or garbage of Kunitachi. We should punish you.”
In the consciousness and recognition of the above writer, we can point out the mentality of the people who never try to overcome the taboo to touch kegare.

 

II. Memory of My Early Childhood

 

1. My village was attacked

 

I was born in Kobe. My parents are from a buraku of Okayama prefecture. My father died when I was 3 years old. My little brother and I grew up in the farming buraku in Tsuyama city, Okayama. There were about 40 houses in the village. I do not remember about Kobe. So, my spiritual life begins in this village.
When I was 6, before I went to an elementary school, my grandmother who was vigorous then told me many things. There is a vivid impressive story.
Both of us enjoyed basking in the sun on a veranda. We could see a neighboring farming village at the end of the rice field beyond the shrine next to my house. One day, my grandmother pointed out the farming village, and said as following.
“Many people from that village attacked our village with bamboo spear in old days.” I don’t remember if she told me about what happened before and after the attack, but above words remained in my impression. Together with the question why? Her words became an image of many people ran with bamboo spear in their hands.
That was calld ‘Eta Hunting’ and it later became a problem named ‘Riots Against Liberation Order’. It happened in 1876 (Meiji 6), two years after Senmin Liberation Order.
Generally speaking, it is called ‘Mimasaka Ketsujei Riot’. Addition to Senmin liberation order, newly formed Japanese government had also done fiscall reform, enactment of educational system and the conscription system. The riots were against them. People requested to keep eta status as it was before. Local government rejected the request, and the riot groups were forced to break up by an army. Right after that, riot groups attacked buraku (= village of eta in old system) with arms like a bamboo spear. And they forcibly made people in buraku to write a note saying that it is all right to be eta as before. In the villages that refused to write such notes, there were massacres and destruction. My village wrote the note right away. So, there was no destruction. But my family and the other family were not excused. Because both family were slaughtering animals.(It was called Tochiku or Togyu.) It was considered a indecent occupation (kind of a kegare), and people regarded it as a taboo. Therefore, farmers requested us to quit our occupation, and we refused. So, they destroyed our house. After the destruction, our family seemed to quit slaughtering. Because of the destruction or not, my family was in bankruptcy when I lived in that house. [Trial report about this problem and details will appear in the next chapter 3-1]
I here explain shortly about meat eating in Japan.
Meat eating was prohibited about one thousand years since 8th century to 1872 in Japan. It was prohibited as an act of national worship of the Emperor system. Middle of 7th century, an order of prohibition was written in ‘Nihon Shoki’. But the purpose of the order was not clear until 722, the period of Emperor Tensho. The purpose was a magic ritual against a convulsion of nature which disturbs growing rice.(Shoku Nihon Ki). Meat eating was considered to tempt providence, and God would be mad. Under the prohibition, people secretly ate animal meat as a concealed culture. Men of power like emperor ate meat as a medicine. In such a situation, burakumin produced meat during Edo period. The Buraku made expensive meat product known as ‘Misozuke of Omi beef’ is still in circulation as an expensive food now. But there is a discrimination still now against the people who produce it. You see here the double standard. And it’s a problem nowadays.
Around the last days of the Tokugawa Regime and Meiji Ishin, the meat eating culture spread out all over Japan as a Western culture. Why it spread out so fast is that there was a place to take care of the fallen farming animals in the village of burakumin since Edo period. The place like this was used as a slaughterhouse, and there was a technique of taking apart. That’s why my family used to slaughter animals. Meiji government couldn’t stop meat eating and removed the ban. We accepted the Western culture without overcoming the history and culture of meat eating ban ideologically. It looked modern way of life on the surface. But there was a taboo left behind it. For the confirmation, there were farmers who attacked my family, and a discrimination against ‘Misozuke of Omi Beef’.

 

2. Big matter

 

I was a healthy boy before and after entering to an elementary school. I did not care about buraku (including a discrimination) specially. My Kawanabe elementary school was receiving children from 6 villages. Almost all of the villages were farming villages. Except my buraku, 3 of the burakus had only 10 houses each, and all the kids from those 3 burakus were no more than 5% of the children in the school. There were differences of the individual abilities and economy among the children. But, such difference never related to an issue of buraku. Children of the school were living livelily in such difference and diversity.
It was not true that we didn’t notice any issue of buraku in the life. My mother was a peddler. When she talked with her customer, she had better not say where she was from. Mentioning it would ruin the business effort sometimes. I heard it when my mother talked to the lady next door. Stories like following came into the ears of a child as I was very often. Young men of our village had fights because people from other towns or villages talk bad about us. That was a normal life to me then. It’s a desolate surroundings if I think over it now.
Little before I became a junior high school student, I was 11 then, a big trouble happened. A high school boy from our village killed his classmate by a knife. The classmate who was killed had insulted the boy from our village using the word `Eta’. The matter was reported big on newspaper and on radio. I knew pretty much about the history of the word, and how heavy it is. I thought that the matter could not avoid because the killed person used such heavy word to insult. I had sympathy for the murderer.
Reactions of adults in the village like my mother were introverted. Our village is normally thought with negative image. So, adults are afraid that our villager is talked worse due to the affair. My mother said that her business is difficult then.
Introverted reaction of adults became amplified for several years whenever people talk about the arrest and a trial of the murderer. Under such situation, I became a student of junior high school. My mother suggested me to go to the school in town far from my house. I had got the best friend there, and the murder or an issue of buraku had never affected my school life.
When I was 14 years old, my mother was hired as a cooking staff for the national hospital built close to our house. I think that this event gave a big influence to my life. Income from peddling was small, and unstable. In our house, there were my little brother, my uncle who is a younger brother of my mother, and a cousin who is my aunt’s child besides us. But, my mother was the only person who brought income to the family. We had 5000ｍ2 of rice field. I and my cousin cultivated the soil and did some farming. My uncle didn’t work because he had tuberculosis. He was selfish and a fast liver.
We were poor. So, I thought that I have to work after graduating the junior high school. There were 14 children at my age in our village, and all of our circumstances were look alike. After graduating a junior high school, boys usually became construction workers. I noticed later that such circumstance was affected much by a discrimination of employment against buraku.
In such a life, my mother’s income became monthly though it was not much. I remember that my mother was so happy about it. And she said to me, “If you want, it is all right to go to a high school.” My life was changed definitely at that time.

 

3. Will I be discriminated actually?

 

As a high school student, I’ve got many friends, and I was interested in various things. It was before my first summer vacation in high school. My close friend since junior high school said that he wanted to come to my house. He had gotten a new bicycle and wanted to ride a bicycle for long distance. His house was in Tsuyama city, and it was about 5 km to my house. I said, ”O.K.”, and said goodbye. Right after that, there was something came across my mind. When he comes, he might notice that my house is in a buraku. What he will think of me?
My mind came across imaginary fears of buraku’s negative image which adult talk about. What am I going to do if he hates a burakumin? That is how I worried. I didn’t know what to do with it. I was caught in a dilemma when I was alone on the way home from the school.
I was like that for 4 or 5 days. One day, I’ve hit an idea. He is the one to decide whether he hates buraku or not. There is no use of my worrying about it. For the purpose of throwing out useless worry, I better tell him that I’m a burakumin. After I thought so, my dilemma was gone.
I decided to talk about the village before he came. But I hesitated, and needed courage to do so. There was not a single story it went good after telling people about us in our village.
Right before summer vacation, I told him. “My village is called buraku.”
That’s exactly how I told him. At that time, Hisabetsu Buraku or Dowa Chiku were not familiar words to the people. Also, buraku meant normally a farming village. But he knew what I meant.
“There is no meaning in such thing.” He said. Since then, I’ve never talked about buraku with him. I feel it is enough. He has been my best friend until now.
Such experience with him seems to change me. I told that I’m a burakumin whenever I met a friend, a colleague, and a girlfriend. It’s not done by faith or anything like that. I was not coming out or was not declaring about my hometown. I tried to mention about my hometown when the conversation flow into the direction as anybody do. I didn’t think that I should hide about it. But when I decided to tell, I hesitated because you never know how the person reacts. And, when I was afraid to tell, I scolded myself on the contrary like, “You should tell.” If I runaway now, I will hesitate and fear for my whole life. I needed a strong determination and the will. Deep layer of such will, I had a thought like following. ”Will I be discriminated actually?”
After graduating high school, I went to the university in Tokyo and I had many side jobs. I told that I am a burakumin not only at school, but also at work. I was sort of trying to see if there was discrimination or not. What was the result of my experiment? There was nobody who discriminate me right away. But there were people who talked bad about me behind my back. One of the colleague gave me an advise that I should not talk about myself because it won’t do any good for me. When I’ve got married, I told that I’m a burakumin to the parents of my wife. Nothing happened at that time. But the parents and relatives strongly opposed to our marriage. I found out about it long time later.

 

III. The Reason to Prohibit Meat Eating and Now.

 

1. The report about the case of destruction
Since I became a student of Meiji University and majored in literature, I began to seriously think about an issue of buraku. What is the discrimination against buraku? What can I do to get rid of the discrimination? My question like that and interest about an issue of buraku have got stronger. And I tried to express my feeling literary. I was interested in the movement of liberation for buraku as a realistic drive. Talking about the drive, I handed an entry form to a representative of Tokyo Buraku Liberation League right after graduating my university. I found out later that my entry form didn’t go through the system by a mistake of the receiver. No notice came to me later on. But my address was changing often for the job at that time. I thought that is the reason why I had not heard from the Buraku Liberation League. On the other hand, I was thinking that I should walk my way of literature by myself. I do not need to ask help for the movement groups. Therefore, I never worked as a activist of the movement group, but I cooperated with them.
My first interest about the history of buraku came naturally from the question “why there is discriminations?” While I was studying about the history, I came into materials about Riots Against Liberation Order at the beginning of Meiji period. The report about the trial interested me. The report was the testimony about my house in which I grew up. It was the story about the attack our village had gone through. I heard about it from my grandmother when I was 6 years old. The part about my family is as following. ( ) means my explanation. Suenaga is the name of my family. It is my mother’s maiden name.
“ I (witness, the representative of the neighboring farming village) heard the roomer that many angry people (people who commit the riot) stood up in several villages, and they were going to destroy and put fire to the villages of ex-eta on May 27 (1873). There are 10 houses of ex-eta in my village (Those 10 houses are my village). While I was worrying about them, (omit) in the middle of the night, (omit) so many people who stood up for the riot had came into the village of ex-eta. Keijiro and Suenaga Rikizo (my family) were attacked. ( omit, Right after the attack of 2 families, the representative of the village wrote a note saying that we are all right to be eta as old days. So, they escaped the destruction of the houses. Two families were not forgiven. The reason is as following.) Keijiro and Rikizo slaughter the animals. That is an ugly occupation. Their houses should be burned. People who commit the riot said so. (omit) To avoid the chain fire of the houses in the village, we had no choice but to destroy 2 houses. (Kindai Burakushi Shiryou Shusei; published by San Ichi Shobou)
It’s a part of the testimony by the representative of farmers who destroyed my house. The reason why they destroyed only 2 houses out of 10 houses in the village is very clear.
From the passage saying that slaughtering animals is an ugly occupation, we understand that the occupation was a taboo.
The demand of the riot shows the discrimination against all of the former eta status. Even after fulfilling the demand of the riot, 2 families who slaughter animals were not forgiven because their occupation was a taboo. This special reason, taboo, is touching the basis of the discrimination against buraku. That is the important part of the taboo that Japanese do not want to break independently. A distinctive characteristic of Japanese psychology is that they do not want to break the taboo even though they eat meat. By the way, my family quit their occupation, slaughtering animals later on. Addition to that, the stream of the movement became a taboo within my family.
Right now, many Japanese say that the affair happened 120 years ago, and we do not know if all the Japanese at that time are like the people in the testimony or not. There are many Japanese who do not want to talk about the affair still now. But meat eating was clearly taboo in our history. We cannot say that we broke the taboo until we make clear about how we adapt a meat eating culture. The process and history of it should be cleared. Also, we should make clear about how we overcome the taboo in our idea or philosophically. There is nobody who answered the above questions. There is also no awareness of the issues.
On the other hand, at the time of the riot, the meat eating culture of Western countries were spread out all over Japan. And it fell down on an old taboo. You see double sides character about meat eating culture. Such double sides character is ruling Japanese deep state of mind or unconsciousness.
In Rikkyo University where I lecture, there was an incident in 1996. A speaker for an extension lecture titled ‘ Environment and Lives VII ? Pathology of Well Fed ‘ received claim and denounced by worker at the slaughterhouse, and Buraku Liberation League Shinagawa brunch. The lecturer was impressed by Mongolian way of slaughtering sheep and felt delicious when he ate the meat with them. But, he had completely different dark image about Japanese slaughterhouse. He said as following.
“Why you cannot eat meat? The reason is as follows. (omit) When cows or pigs are about to killed, they shout a death cry. They are scared in terror. The death cry and their terror sink into the meat. Eating such meat foster human lives? The meat is the result of human cruelty. Such a meat cannot foster the lives of human.” The lecturer continued.
“ There are slaughter houses in Japan. For example, Shibaura slaughter house. People working there know that the meat they produce is uneatable. But, they never say so. I do not eat Yakitori. It’s dangerous. They are not healthy food at all.” ( a summary of the report about discriminating remarks in students’ seminar 1999 Rikkyo University)
It’s no more than a childish understanding. Considering about his experience in Mongol that he felt delicious about the mutton there, what he commented on Japanese meat and slaughterhouses was just a prejudice.
Nowadays in Japan, such a prejudice is considered as an individual nature. But, that’s not right. It’s just placing himself in the culture from Western countries that is one side of the double standard existing in Japan. Important thing is breaking the immanent taboo independently, and overcome such double standard. If we had understood about it, nobody regarded slaughtering animals as an indecent occupation, and my house had never got destroyed.

 

2. Magic religious ritual and meat eating

 

I would like to take a good look at the reason and the history of prohibition about meat eating that I talked a little in advance. Eating meat was prohibited as a sentence from the Emperor In 674. The order prohibits eating meat of a cow, a horse, a dog, a monkey, and a chicken for half a year. (Nihon Shoki; the period of Emperor Tenmu) In 722, same kind of order was given for a year. And the purpose for the order made clear, then. It’s like following
‘Caused by a chaotic weather, a drought has been here for a while. Though we try rain- making rituals, there are no signs of rain. (omit) So, we prohibit drinking alcohol and slaughtering animals. Then, we apologize to God.’ ( Shoku Nihon Ki; the period of Emperor Genshou )
The Emperor’s rain making ritual didn’t work. Then, she ordered to prohibit drinking alcohol, and slaughtering animals to get an effect. It’s a magic ritual to avoid the convulsion of nature.
The order of the Genshou Emperor as a start, same kind of order has been continued once in several years. This historical facts show that Japanese has been eating meat. Secret language like Sakura for meat of horse, and Botan for meat of wild boar is considered being made under such circumstance. ‘Honne and Tatemae’ (= one’s real intention and one’s public position) pointed out as psychology of Japanese has born in such social composition as well. ‘Honne and Tatemae is adapted to the double standard of imitating Western culture and traditional Japanese culture in the modern period. ‘Aimai’, Japanese character pointed out by Kenzaburo Oue, a writer who received Nobel Prize, is considered to come from such social composition.
About 1000 years later since prohibition of meat eating as a magic religious taboo, in 1872, meat eating was removed from a ban. The reason was that the Emperor ate a beef and it had no evil effect on him. The event was just a formality caused by importing Western meat eating culture. If this event was done not as a food tasting ritual, but scientifically and idealistically, it might be a start to break a taboo. If Japanese thought that prohibition of meat eating was wrong at that time, the taboo could be overcome. Breaking the taboo could be a start to break the discrimination against buraku. But, there was not such an attitude.

 

IV. Life in Tokyo

 

1. Story about my aunt

 

I entered Meiji University in 1959 against objection of my family and relatives. I borrowed an enrollment fee from my aunt in Tokyo. I made my school and living expenses by delivering newspaper.
My aunt was living in Tokyo as the chairman of the board of directors for the sanatorium for tuberculosis. Her income was more than average, and she was living by herself with a housekeeper. I was staying with my aunt when I entered my university. My aunt wanted me to do so. It was convenient to me. But, I knew that I would not be able to stay there for long. My aunt was hiding that she is a burakumin.
When she was young, she experienced awful discrimination of marriage. She has been living alone since then. I heard what happened to my aunt from my relatives when I was in Tsuyama. She was smart since she was a little child. And a high school teacher recommended her to go to a university. Her father had sold rice fields to make school expenses. She went to a Christian university for women in Tokyo. She fell in love with a student of Tokyo University. She married him who was a son of a trader in Yokohama. And they lived with his family.
At the end of the Pacific War, Yokohama became a target of air raids. So, her family evacuated to the farming area in Tsuyama, my aunt’s hometown. We were there. My aunt was hiding about buraku, but her husband and his parents were informed by the people in town that my aunt is a burakumin. The parents of her husband had got very mad, and talked about a divorce right away. Right after the war ended, and the family went back to Yokohama, my aunt had got divorced. Having an experience like that, my aunt has been hiding about her hometown.
I could understand very well about my aunt’s feeling. But, if I live like her, I will give in to the discrimination against buraku without doing anything. I didn’t want to be a man like that. So, I told my aunt that I wanted to continue taking interest in an issue of buraku. I began to make contact with the members of societies for the study of an issue of buraku in Waseda University and Keio University. Also, I contacted with activists of buraku liberation movement. It was me who made a society for the study of an issue of buraku in Meiji University two years later.
I knew that my aunt couldn’t stand about my interest and activities. One day, my aunt called me, and told me to choose between dumping an issue of buraku, and leaving her house.
My aunt had been hiding that she was a burakumin to her business friends and acquaintances. It was impossible for her to go opposite after such a long time. She would lose her social reliance. We didn’t know what would happen when my aunt said that she was a burakumin. Anyway, she wouldn’t risk her accomplishment. That’s how I thought about her. So, I left the house of my aunt, and began to live in a news dealer’s shop near my university. I was ready for that from the beginning. I was at my aunt’s house for about 2 months.

 

2. A pit trap
I experienced mental crisis while I was at my aunt’s house. It might happen because I talked about hiding our hometown with my aunt. I noticed there was ‘a pit’ when I told people that I was a burakumin. ‘A pit’ is the thought about my reaction to the discrimination after I tell somebody that I am a burakumin. Of course, I will protest. But, how can I?
“You are wrong.” It was the first thing I could think of. I didn’t think such words make anybody think over what he had done. If he can listen to such words, he won’t discriminate me from the beginning. It seemed to me that there was a deep-rooted background about the discrimination against buraku. But, such background was thought to be ridiculous. When I thought about a protest, I couldn’t find any meaning in talking to the discriminator. I felt humiliation about explaining to the opponent honestly. Isn’t it worthless to explain to a man with no conscience using a lot of time? I thought so. But, I can’t stand being discriminated. I was just mulling it over in my mind, and I didn’t know what to do. I felt that I was getting depressed.
I felt like I was sinking into a bottomless swamp for a week, and I was still thinking what to do. An idea struck me. I would beat them up. That’s the most effective method. It will be a chance for the opponent to think over what he has done. Also, my feeling won’t be hurt. That’s it. There is nothing else. I was not good at fighting. If the opponent is stronger than me, it’s all right to use any kinds of arms I can find then.
Looking back on my life, deciding to beat the discriminator was my philosophy to live as a burakumin. But, I’ve never practiced the philosophy. There have been no discriminator came up to me. The discrimination behind the scene takes time to get to know. It was long time later that I have got to know that my wife’s family and relatives opposed our marriage. I don’t want to beat them up now. It can be said that time eased my feeling. Now, I know what to say to the discriminator. My philosophy to live as a burakumin has improved from physical strength to verbal strength. The reason for the improvement is like following. I didn’t know what is the issue of buraku when I was young. I was living not knowing what the issue of buraku, and I was justifying myself by rough violence. I now understood about the nature of the issue, and the answer to the issue. I have expressions to explain about the answer. That is not ethics like telling discriminators ‘You are wrong’, or explaining why they are not right. The expression should be the way I live, how to live or exist as a burakumin, and identity of myself. I call them culture in a little bit wide concept. People are not just living as creature. People exist with culture, and they can live or exist together by understanding each other.
I call such culture ‘ culture of buraku’. Because I found out the ‘culture of buraku’, I could improve myself from existence of rough violence to existence of culture.

 

V. The civilization and the culture challenged Kegare (=chaos)
~Occupation of Kiyome and its culture
A principle of the discrimination

 

The culture of buraku is born in the occupation called ‘Kiyome’ which is the job given to eta and hinin status in Edo period. Therefore, it’s easy to understand about the culture of buraku if I explain about the occupation called ‘Kiyome’ generally as a start. But, it is difficult to see the whole occupation called ‘Kiyome’ now. After ‘Senmin Liberation Order’, a lot of occupation called ‘Kiyome’ disappeared. I will explain in this chapter about the reason why ‘Kiyome’ disappeared. One of the reasons is as follows. In Edo period, burakumin ( = people who had occupation called ‘Kiyome’) were arresting criminals at the scene as police force. In the modern period, Japanese government imitated the police system of Western countries. In Tokyo, the government hired lower level samurai from Edo period as policemen, and fired burakumin who was working as a police force until then. Just like that. As you can see from the police example, there were no fixed occupation or job for burakumin. From the beginning of the modern period, burakumin went bankrupt. On top of that, discrimination about marriage and finding jobs are remaining still now. Therefore, we have to take a look at the occupation from the history. My family was forced to quit slaughtering animals, and that was one of the examples of what was going on at that time.
You will understand about abstract principles to materialize the discrimination against buraku when you take a look at the whole occupation called Kiyome. I will analyze it into details in this chapter.

 

1. Occupation called ‘Kiyome’

 

The hereditary occupation as a status of burakumin was fixed in Edo period. It was the occupation to purify (=Kiyome) the concrete uncleanness (=Kegare). The occupation was fixed institutionally, and had a public character. So, the occupation was called ‘Yakume’ or ‘Goyo’.
There is an ancient writing which was a written oath about ‘Yakuma’ submitted to the government in Edo period by Danzaemon, the governor of all senm in the nation. (Oyakume Aitsutome sourou Oboe Kyouhou Nenkan 1716~36) The summary of the writing is as follows.
① processing animal corpses ② leather craft ③ street guard ④ security guard ⑤ prison guard ⑥ work at a place of execution (Edo shakai to Danzaemon; written by Kenji Nakao)
Addition to the above job, there were local Yakume of Kiyome Yaku (eta, hinin status) governed by Danzaemon. ⑦ water guard ⑧ mountain guard ⑨ purification rite in a shrines and temples ( Buraku Sabetsu o Kokufuku suru Shisou)
Compensation was provided for these works. It was money from public offices, the right to collect rice from the residents in neighborhood, and a privilege to produce leather crafts on a commercial basis. Before commercializing leather crafts, Kiyome yaku send the leather crafts as a tax to the government or a local governor.
By Senmin Liberation Order, above works were liberated to anybody, and the compensation is vanished. It’s the beginning of the economical break down. Addition to that, Meiji government didn’t grapple squarely with an issue of buraku. The government regarded the bankruptcy as laziness of the individual. That was the policy. Meiji government took measures for only a part of poor people.( Buraku Sabetsu o Kokufuku suru Shisou ) Such a historical fact is connected to poverty that is the important side of an issue of buraku in the modern and the contemporary period.

 

2. As a social function

 

3 million burakumin in 6000 buraku all over Japan is not living where they live to be discriminated. They have lived there to take care of the occupation needed for social function. Until now, the reason why there is a buraku is the ‘policy of dividing the people and discriminate buraku ’ . The government of Edo period used a discrimination to divide the resistance of the people for the purpose of easy ruling.
It’s true that there was a policy to discriminate buraku. But, that was a result, not a reason. The reason was that buraku was placed and fixed to purify (=Kiyome) the concrete uncleanness (=Kegare). It’s not the result of free decision of burakumin, nor an accident. Buraku was politically placed as a social organ or a function to purify the concrete uncleanness.
Considering above occupations as social function, ③ to ⑧ is police organs now, and they are the work police do at the scene. Crime and sin were Kegare. Kebiishi, old police organ, was operated by hinin at the scene. After Muromachi period, police organ was established as Samurai Dokoro. The concept of regarding crime and sin as Kegare didn’t change. Hinin and people called eta by Tokugawa regime took care of crime and sin. Eta had been called Kiyome until the period of Tokugawa regime. As the period of Samurai rule went by, eta was called Kawata in kansai area, and Chouri in kanto area. ( Sabetsu to Hyougen ) Eta and hinin is the different status. At the scene of the work, hinin was a supporter of eta.
① and ② are organ to purify the concrete uncleanness. Police organ ⑥overlaps ① and ②. ⑨ is magic religious purification of uncleanness, and it’s a part of religious organ.
That’s all about ‘Yakume’ of eta and hinin statuses. As you see, all the occupations were purification (=Kiyome) of the uncleanness (=Kegare).
If we talk about the works only to run everyday life, there were farming and bamboo craft that are not related to Kegare even in buraku. Those works were approved as the compensation or a payment to ‘Yakume’. There was a buraku that had a Yakume of water guard. Tokugawa regime approved it to develop bamboo thickets, and the buraku was farming. (Tokyo Buraku Kaiho Kenkyu Kai, No.81 ‘Life and struggle of Ueno villager’) A right to commercialize fur remained after payment of land tax is one of the compensation. They were considered to be a privilege.

 

3. Kiyome Yaku and occupational category

 

Status ranking in Edo period is Samurai, farmers, artisans, tradesmen, eta, hinin, and zasshu senmin. Samurai, farmers, artisans, and tradesmen are called by occupational category. There are no fixed category for eta, hinin, and zasshu senmin. It’s one of the reasons that we don’t understand an issue of buraku. It is clear that the occupation of eta, and hinin was Kiyome Yaku (=to purify the uncleanness). Many of zasshu senmin was engaged in magic or public entertainment. So, we can say that their occupation were accomplishments. As we think like that, we can see all the status as an occupational category systematically. Therefore, I call eta, and hinin statuses in Edo period ‘Kiyome Yaku’ as an occupational category. When we refer to the status, we should make effort to use category as recognition nowadays. I’m proposing it.
Historical documents prove that eta used to be called Kiyome. Chiribukuro (Nihon Koten Zenshu), a book about manners and customs around 1280 begins like this. ‘ What kind of language is that calls Kiyome eta? ‘ The book interests people as the first book used the word ‘eta’. The book goes on to answer the question. ‘ It was Etori at the beginning. (omit) When we try to say Etori quickly, it changed to eta.’ This answer is denied as just a spur of the moment idea. But the questioning part at the beginning is noteworthy. It’s exactly a manners and customs at the time, and we cannot deny about it.
Kiyome and eta in the book is referred to the name of occupations in the medieval period and not as the name of status. According to the things I talked about the book, following can be understood. Eta used to be called Kiyome, and Kiyome included several occupations. Also, hinin who did police job at the scene was called Kiyome. Hinin in Edo period continued to do almost same kind of the work from the medieval period.

 

4. The abstract principle of discrimination

 

When we take a look at the occupation called Kiyome generally, we can find an abstract principle of the discrimination against buraku. We can clearly see the other history after finding out the principle. That is the formation of buraku including the discrimination began from the occupational difference as the starting point.
Some historian has been challenging elucidation of the idea about discrimination. But, the questions are not fully answered. People make an order or a system to avoid chaos and Kegare. So, the people whom regarded as chaos or Kegare can’t do anything but to be discriminated and excluded. There is no way to erase the discrimination. (Buraku Kaihou March 1998 written by Jin Imamura) Such way of thinking is getting influential recently. But, people with such opinion do not provide what is the discrimination against buraku. They also have weak points like mixing up the difference and the discrimination, or having one side view to the people.
It’s sure that people make an order or a system to avoid chaos and Kegare. At the same time, people challenge to chaos and Kegare to create science and philosophy. That made new culture, orders, and systems. (What is Philosophy? ; written by Gilles Deieuzu, Felix Guattari) Such a challenge will continue as long as there is chaos, and Kegare. Above idea about chaos and Kegare is the presupposition to my opinion as follows. Chaos and Kegare is the certain clue to think about the discrimination against buraku. Also, the idea will be the most suitable one when we think about the culture of buraku. Because buraku culture was born when people touched or challenged the uncleanness, and when they tried to Kiyome (=recycle) it.
It’s been pointed out early that discrimination against buraku has something to do with Japanese Kegare. But there was no theory that can fully explain about the abstract structure.
I would like to consider about the abstract principle of discrimination now. As I pointed out before, there is a combination of two ideas. That is ‘Kie’ to avoid Kegare, and ‘Shokue’ to regard the people who touch and challenge Kegare as unclean people. ‘Kie’ is the order and system to avoid chaos and Kegare. ‘Shokue’ is the magic religious idea about the people who touch Kegare.
British anthropologist, James Frazer analyzed and found a rule about magic in the world. It is called sympathetic magic. It is consist of two rules. Those rules are the rule of infection and the rule of similarity. The rule of infection is like this. ‘Two things which are touched before continue interaction even after physical separation. (Golden Bough) ‘Shokue’ is the same idea as contagious magic.
The ideas of ‘Kie’ and ‘awareness of Shokue’ form combination connected to the discrimination. Existence of the people who touch and challenge chaos and Kegare become a target of exclusion and discrimination as chaos and Krgare itself. When they combine with hereditary status system, the discrimination against the status (=discrimination against buraku) begins. This is the abstract principle of discrimination. When the combination began, it was the formative period of buraku.
Job or occupation to correspond to chaos and Kegare combined with hereditary status system and fixed. We don’t know when it happened, but it is guessed around the end of Sengoku Period, Muromachi period, and the beginning of Edo period. Tetsuichi Niunoya who is studying about ancient Kebiishi presumes about the formative period of buraku as when kawaramono and eta (name of occupation at the time) were refused to go to Court (around 1428). I think his estimate time is relatively right.
The medieval period when is before 1428, there were the idea of Kie and awareness of Shokue. Senmin was touching Kegare to do its job, but their job changes everyday and it was not fixed. I consider that the medieval period is still in the limit of difference.

 

5. Circulation of Ke (=everyday life), Hare (=ceremony), Kegare

 

① What is Kegare?

 

Let’s think about what is Kegare now. There is various idea about Kegare in the study of an issue of buraku. I believe that the concept of Kegare from folklore and cultural anthropology is realistic.
Emiko Namihira, a professor of cultural anthropology, explains about Kegare as ‘something special and unusual, unclean, corrupted thing, wicked, sin, unhappy, and unfortunate [death, sick, injury, misfortune]’. (Kegare no Kozou) Though there is vague rules, her explanation is about right. The occupations to touch Kegare (= Kiyome) correspond to the above phenomenon, and recycle them to something else.
By the way, in many case, Kegare is written「穢」. This Chinese character came from China, and it is pronounced ‘AI’. It’s same as the word「汚穢」pronounced ‘OAI’. Kegare is considered to exist from the old time as a word of oral tradition. When it’s written in books like ‘Kojiki’, Chinese character「穢」 is used, because this character has same meaning as Kegare. Sometimes「汚」 is used to write Kegare. Written form of Kegare was not fixed. (Buraku Sabetsu o Kokufuku suru Shisou) Recent folklore way to write Kegare is「ケガレ」to mean that it is a word of oral tradition. And, to show the meaning of the word, they use「気枯れ」in many cases. I think folklore way is right. Kegare means that the lives of something wither or die, according to how it’s written. Sin was added later to the meaning of Kegare. (Kegare; written by Wakou Okiura, Noboru Miyata)
② Recycling Kegare = Circulating structure

 

There is a concept you should not forget when you think about Kegare. That is called Ke (=everyday life), Hare (=ceremony), Kegare circulating structure in folklore. It is connected to Japanese view of life and nature from old times.
The phenomenon of Kegare is that Ke(=everyday life) gets unusual. In the other word, Ke dies. That’s how Kegare is considered in folklore. When everyday life gets unusual, people try to restore it. Religious ceremony and festival were held to restore the everyday life in the period without science. Such space-time is called Hare.
In short, Kegare go through the space-time of Hare, and Kegare restore itself to Ke. It’s clear that there is a circulating structure. An action that was taken at the space-time, Hare, is Kiyome.(Kegare) Norito, Japanese shrine
chant, goes “Harai Kiyome~”. That shows a wish to get rid of Kegare and sin, and purify the country or the area they live. In reality, burakumin corresponded to recycle sin and kegare (In folklore, both of them are kegare.) when they occur.
Kiyome for Kegare in the other word, the circulating structure, indicates the meaning of existence of buraku, and it’s social function. It is also indicating that buraku culture and buraku civilization are linking to the whole society.

 

VI. Exclusion and discrimination in buraku

 

I haven’t gotten my theory from smooth life or consideration. I found my theory in twists and turns, mistakes, frustration, wrong diagnosis, and misunderstanding.
I had no economic conditions to go to the university. Due to my education in a commercial high school, my academic ability was also not satisfying. The reason why I decided to go to the university is that I wanted to have time to think about my life. I wrote about my life in youth in the autobiographical novel ‘Mouhitotsu no Gendai’. I went to the university, and majored in literature. I felt a foreboding of my life at that time. The foreboding was that I have a big wall in my life, and I have to proceed bumping my head into the wall. I didn’t know why I felt such a foreboding, and I haven’t specially care about it. If I think back about it now, the big wall may be an issue of buraku as an unsolved problem. I had no idea that the wall will be made by my family at that time.
The idea to materialize the discrimination against buraku is spread to anywhere. Social composition to set aside such idea is probably the same in buraku. Typical composition is Japanese value of “family” which is more important than individuals. It’s an old structure of Japanese society. And patriarchy supports the idea of “family’.
My first wall to bump into was my “family”.
Right after I started my elementary school, my grandmother passed away. My mother supported a family after that. My mother has 4 older sisters and a younger brother. All the sisters were already married and living outside the village. My aunt in Tokyo is the second daughter in the family. My mother’s brother, Izumi, has tuberculosis, and he is the first son of the family. He didn’t work because of his illness. My aunt in Tokyo sent him allowance. When he needed more than the allowance, he made money by selling rice we grow secretly.
He lived in and out of the sanatorium in town. To me, he was a fast liver. He belonged to the literature group in the sanatorium, and wrote Hikes and novels. When he sent a coterie magazine to the socialistic novelist, the theme of his novel was admired. The theme was the discrimination against buraku. That was around 1955 when I was a student of junior high school. The novelist is Hiroshi Noma. Noma anticipated solving an issue of buraku, the view and potential of burakumin in socialistic idea. He admired and encouraged Tetsu Hijikata and Masau Sakai. My uncle, Izumi, had not published anything yet, but he became a man to be encouraged by Noma.
I guess that Izumi was puffed up with encouragement by Noma. There were no marks of his study about literature in his room. Amusement books that ordinary patients read were put around his never made bed. He went out almost everyday, and was meeting his friends from the hospital. Other than that, he went to the movie twice a week. I heard him saying that the movie is faster to understand than books. He meant that he can understand about an outlook on life. He was actually absorbed in the play to find women who let him touch in the darkness of the movie theater, and have a sex if they allow. He boasted of his success to young men in our village. I heard same story again and again. He needed a lot of money for such play.
He was writing about the play. He also wrote that it’s a resistance of burakumin to fool with women. Why do I know such things? Because he asked me what I think about his unfinished novels when I was a university student. He was living in Tokyo at that time, and asked my opinion about his unfinished novels many times.
I’ve never seen his finished novel. (About 40 years later, Izumi published ‘Sabetsu no Rensa’) His writing was too poor to say that it was a novel. Not only I, but also Noma pointed out about it. That’s why he let me read and made sure about the quality of his writing. I was sick of his asking me to read unfinished pieces. But I couldn’t say no to him, because Hiroshi Noma was encouraging him. I respect the novels of Hiroshi Noma. My mental state at that time led me to my biggest dilemma.
Izumi had sold our rice field of 2000ｍ2 saying that it was what he should inherit. With that money, he went to Tokyo several months ahead of me. The reason to go to Tokyo was that he wanted to devote himself to writing a novel. But his life in Tokyo is almost same as that in Tsuyama except not seeing a doctor. He showed off about Noma’s encouragement, and justified his playing around. He was just puffed up. He married a woman he met in Tokyo, and his life was depended on her.
I didn’t like him. But, he was seeing Hiroshi Noma once a year, and asking Noma’s opinion about his writing. When he talked about Noma, I shrunk I guess. Noma’s advice to Izumi was “Write how you see people and scenes.” I thought that his advice was exactly right.
Izumi wrote a novel like explaining something. Considering he was getting advice from Noma, I thought that I had no need to point out about his poor writing. That’s why I praised his unfinished novel awkwardly, and could not say what I thought about it clearly. I was in the funny state of mind. On the other side, Izumi made Noma’s advice a mystery and he was justifying himself easily.
I was thinking to write a novel about an issue of buraku. If I stick with Izumi, It will be no good for me. I decided to leave him. But, Izumi knows Hiroshi Noma whom I respect and is highly evaluated by the people. I don’t know whether I’m right about a sense of literature or not. I began to think like that. I was also thinking to show my first novel to Noma when I finish it. Noma was the only novelist who might read the novel about an issue of buraku. If I leave Izumi, I might have to give up my wish to show my first novel to Noma. I was in such obsession.
I need to choose to be a victim of Izumi or independent. I could sacrifice myself. But, I didn’t think that Izumi was worth doing so.
I have hesitated to leave Izumi for 3 years. Then, I decided to leave him, and I wanted to show my last love to him. What he needed was to establish his style of novel. To do so, Izumi should experience the actual life. He should have the sense of working people. If he works, his writing will improve. I thought about him like that.
Izumi had rejected to work till then. He said that writing a novel is most noble. It was just easy going literature for literature’s sake. In the background of that, he had a weakness of the people who never worked.
If I tell him to work, he will be very mad. I could guess that. I won’t complain about it. But if he tells Noma about what I say, I might have to give up my hope for literature. It might be my imagination in the obsession but that was the worst result I could think of.
I wrote to Izumi and suggested that he had better work to develop a view of the member of society. I don’t know if it’s right in the literary world, but that’s how I think. As I expected, I have received very angry letter of rejection. I decided not to see Izumi after the letter, but I was receiving letters of angry and abuse once a week.
At that time, I quit newspaper delivery job, and was living in an apartment house doing night watch of Korakuen. I began to feel a pain on my chest to worry about what will happen if Izumi comes to my apartment. To avoid the pain, I started to put stress on my shoulder. If I think back now, it was psychosomatic disease. The habit of putting stress on the shoulder stiffens muscle, and now, it is a shoulder pain. I wrote my first published novel (1975) in the obsession about Izumi. Hiroshi Noma helped me to publish it. I appreciate about it. I have never told Noma about the obsession stiffened my chest. I wanted to tell him about it before he passed away.
The relationship with Izumi is more complicated. I use the family name of my father. My mother uses same family name as mine even after going back to hometown. Her family name used to be Suenaga. Izumi couldn’t go home because he cannot support the family back home. And he worried about if his home began to use the family name of Kawamoto. In short, he was worrying about if he became the one to stop the history of Suenaga family.
When I was a sophomore, I went back to Tsuyama. I have just quit newspaper delivery job, and I had free time, then. I don’t know why, but Izumi was at home also. One early morning, Izumi came to my bedroom that I shared with my little brother. He woke us up, and told us to sign a note. The note was saying that the person who succeeds this house should use the family name of ‘Suenaga’. Izumi brought a stamp of Kawamoto that is the family name of mine.
I was too sleepy to think about it. And I had strong feeling against old family system that restricts individuals much in Japanese society. And, I didn’t want to be restricted by the family.
The idea of Izumi was against my way of thinking. So, I should argue against it, but I thought that is tiresome. Then, I signed and stamped his note. I could not imagine that I would be excluded from the family for the reason that I use Kawamoto as my family name. I didn’t care about such thing. And I didn’t see any necessity to change my family name.
My younger brother was adopted by Izumi, and succeeded the house of Suenaga. Later on, my friends and acquaintances in the village informed me in Tokyo that Izumi was saying I’m no more a family of Suenaga when he visited hometown. That sounds exactly what Izumi would do because he is temporizing and dishonest. I had no time and a margin to destroy his plot. I didn’t think Izumi would succeed in it.
As time goes by, people in the village changed to younger generation, and there is nobody who knows about me now. After all, Izumi succeeded in his plot.
That’s not all. When I graduated my university, my brother became an assemblyman of Tsuyama city as a member of Japan Communist Party. His name is Hiroyuki Suenaga. The Communist Party says that the discrimination against buraku is disappearing now, and there are villages liberated completely. But they haven’t published those villages yet. If there were such villages, it is important to hold the process of liberation in common. The process has not published, neither. Considering from their attitude, The Communist Party is trying to lead people to forget about old idea by saying that there isn’t discrimination any more.
The attitude of Japan Communist Party is not honest. If there were a village completely liberated, they should publish about it, and make clear about the liberation process.
I think that the discrimination is disappearing. But, the discrimination about marriage is still deep-rooted problem. And I take it for granted that discriminated person prosecute, and protest about it. That’s not enough to make logic, and an ideology to overcome the discrimination.
We need to make a thorough investigation of the reality and the history of the discrimination and get hold of the whole history and discrimination of buraku. We also need to investigate the occupations and labor that supported the life of burakumin and their wages and ownerships. If we could extract the culture born from the history and the occupations of buraku, we can show the ‘sound view’ that replaces the prejudice. Then, we can come up with logic, and an ideology to overcome the discrimination.
According to the above idea, I have been investigating about the riot against the order of liberation that attacked my family, and consciousness of Kie and Shokue corresponding to Kegare. The Communist party is avoiding such themes. Especially, my brother and my family don’t want to talk about what happened to our family in the old day. The local Communist party that my brother, Hiroyuki Suenaga, represents has the side to fear about the hostile history between our village and farming villages and towns around our village.
I want to avoid a feud, too. But, I believe that we should make clear about the truth in the history. If we do so, we will be able to build a better relationship. Such difference between the way of thinking, and the way to cope with an issue of buraku lead me bump into the wall of the family. The wall of my family melts into the wall of the Communist party. That is a bad innate characteristic of the Communist party that is collapsing by the world criticism. On top of that, Izumi Suenaga with old patriarchy idea joins to the wall, and he try to exclude me from the family. Like this, I’m excluded from the family against my will.
There are other walls around me. I use my real name when I publish reviews and novels about how to live as a burakumin or how to solve an issue of buraku. So, my relatives and friends from my village who hide about buraku keep distance from me. Some of them understand about me privately.
But, there is nobody who says opinion in public or continue to be friend with me. The reason is almost same as my aunt who could not live with me.
Is it fate of burakumin? There is something deeper than fate of burakumin. It looks like an issue of buraku, and the problem between burakumin. But in the background, there is a prejudice about an issue of buraku or a negative image of Japanese that didn’t break the taboo and overcome it independently. The negative image reflects on the psychology of burakumin. Also, patriarchy is denied by the constitution after the World War II. But individual Japanese don’t want to overcome patriarchy consciously. It’s a typical double standard, and patriarchy became a taboo in family relations. This taboo is causing many case of rejection about marring burakumin.
Like I explained before, my family and friends in my hometown drift farther apart from me because I publish the book of my study about how to solve an issue of buraku. The truth that I do not belong to any kind of organizations might influence my situation now. Solution to an issue of buraku has to be approached, and convinced by individuals from the beginning to the end. It doesn’t matter what kind of method or strategy is taken. Therefore, I think it is important to start by oneself.

 

VII. What is the culture of buraku

 

In the world, people touch and challenge chaos, to bear a new science, culture, philosophy, and an idea. There were victims to do so. Same thing happened in Japan. It is Kiyome Yaku (eta,hinin status) whose occupation was to touch Kegare involved in chaos. And they bear a new science and culture in Edo period.
According to the history to avoid Kegare, Japan was relatively delayed about the development of science, culture, philosophy, and ideology. Such delay was made up by the culture imitated from Western countries in the modern period. On the other hand, there was a certain level of development in science and culture by the people who had been discriminated to touch Kegare. That is the culture of buraku.
A distinctive feature about the culture of buraku is that Kiyome, the act of magic, developed science technology and a culture. Also, from magical folk art ( = art of religious services ) , artistic entertainment which express what is the human is born. Generally, magic act or ceremony of Kiyome all over Japan and folk art are performed for festivals of shrines and annual events nowadays. They are no more than a conservation of how to do it. The culture of buraku changed such magical act and ceremony to human dramas like No and Kabuki with the help of Kawaramono. This quality change has almost same importance as the Renaissance in Europe in the medieval period. The history of the buraku culture is an element of Japanese culture to take a look at. Following will be the detail of buraku culture.

 

1. World of Kiyoma and transformation

 

Kiyome is a concept of Shinto. It still has an effect to our everyday life that we should not overlook.
In the history, the Emperor’s ceremony was a Kiyome. The most noble ceremony ‘Ooharae’ chant Norito like, “Excuse, and purify,,,.”. It’s the typical Kiyome. (Harae and Ooharae; written by Koji Yamamoto) Norito chants wishing words that you want to be. It is the other law of sympathetic magic analized by James Frazer. It is the law of likeness, ‘Resemblance bear resemblance’. It is called homeopathic magic (Nihonjin no Kotodama Shisou; written by Kunio Toyoda)
For a nation, the Emperor gets rid of phenomenon of Kegare, and purifies the country. It was the Kiyome magic of the Emperor. The Emperor after the World War II does not do national ceremony. In the local shrine, Shinto priests still chant Norito for the people in the area. That has same meaning as ‘Ooharae’. It has been using same meaning (magical) and style since ancient times. It is valuable because it has not changed since ancient times. It is an idea of the ritual that excludes or avoids sin and Kegare (Both of them are regarded Kegare in folklore.). On the other hand, when sin or Kegare that is wished to exclude by Norito happens concretely, the Emperor nor Shinto priests does not touch to deal with or overcome with them. When concrete Kegare (crime and death) happens, Kiyome Yaku took care of it. Kiyome in such a case is to recycle or make something new that is not Kegare. Scientific knowledge and technology are needed to do so. Without them, we can’t recycle. If we see this recycling as change of quality, we can also see the change from magic to science. Following if a concrete example.

 

2. Japanese Taiko and so forth

 

Taiko (=Japanese dram) is very familiar to Japanese. It is indispensable for traditional and annual event or festivals. Making taiko has been a major work for Kiyome Yaku (eta status) since Edo period. Production of taiko needs high technology. Taiko is still made by craftsmen in buraku. Taiko is made stretching caw leather to keyaki frame. In Edo period, slaughtering animals is prohibited. So, dead farming caw was used for taiko. Dead caw belongs to Kegare. People who touch dead caw were regarded as Kegare or a target of taboo by consciousness of avoiding uncleanness. It’s an idea of magic. But, the technology accumulated to Kiyome Yaku as a specialist, it has been same situation still now.
There are many other science and technology culture born from Kiyome of fallen animals in Edo period. Leather craft like harnesss, Nikawa glue to boil down born and leather, fertilizer, an ornament, and so forth. Nikawa is useful still now as glue for folk handcrafts. There is more important role of Nikawa. Oil for oil painting in Western world is avoiding the paint color from fading and peeling off. Traditional Japanese picture use Nikawa to avoid fading and peeling off of the color. So to speak, it’s a Nikawa picture. Pictures on folding screens or sliding doors called fusumae in Nara and Kyoto have been maintained for several hundreds years by Nikawa. Japanese painting is Nikawa picture still now.
School teaches oil paintings enthusiastically rather than Nikawa picture. It can be said that there is no education about Nikawa.

 

3. Skill of dissection

 

Achievement of Genpaku Sugita who is said to be a father of modern medicine is known very well. In the middle of Edo period, he has dissected Japanese body referring to ‘Anatomi Sche Tabellen’ that was a book about dissection from Holland. Genpaku Sugita had got to know that ‘Anatomi Sche Tabellen’ is right, and he translated it into Japanese. And, he published ‘Kaitai Shinsho’ in 1774. It was an old man of Kiyome Yaku (eta) who confirmed that ‘Anatomi Sche Tabellen’ is right by dissecting a human body. (Rangaku Koto Hajime; written by Genpaku Sugita) We don’t know why the old man actually dissected instead of Genpaku Sugita. It is natural to think that Sugita avoid to touch Kegare.
At the end, Sugita wrote like following. ‘The dissection till that day was left to the hand of eta. He pointed and taught me lungs. And he cut out the liver and the kidney to show me.’ (Rangaku Koto Hajime) Other than this, Kiyome Yaku (eta) leaded dissections at Nagaoka, and Shibata in Echigo (=Niigata prefecture) (Niigata Nippou March 26,2004)
It will be all right to call the skill of dissection a culture of buraku. But, Japanese appraised the skill, and culture of Holland. And, they never appraised the skill of dissection in Japan. Some people say that it was the beginning of the idea called ‘Datsua Nyuou’ (=be friend with Europe, and forget about Asia) that influenced modernizing Japan. It is a warped Japan in the modern period

 

4. Traditional art and transformation

 

No and Kabuki which are internationally recognized Japanese traditional art created by senmin in the medieval period. It is well known truth. There was a Renaissance in Japanese performing art. No is the human drama that Zeami and his son have reformed religious service performance, Sarugaku. Kabuki is the drama of life that Izumo no Okuni, the spiritualistic medium wondered from place to place, expressed social satire and women’s charm.
Other than these internationally recognized traditional art, there was Kadozuke Gei that called on every house to bless a new year. Majority of it was religious courtesy call and it was Kiyome Yaku’sfamily business. ‘Banzai’, ‘Shishimai’, ‘Torioi’, ‘Harugoma’, and ‘Ebisu’ are relatively known.
Those Kadozuke Gei are also changed to dramas to express human feelings without religion when they are arranged for Kabuki.
A statue of smiling ‘Ebisu’ with angled carp is the statue of God for fishermen who want to catch the expensive fish. People who delivered the statue of Ebisu to all over Japan were mostly Senmin. ‘Ebisu Mai’ is the human story performed with the Ebisu doll that supposed to be not God but a human. When Joruri that sings about human feelings is added to ‘Ebisu Mai’, it becomes ‘Ningyo Joruri’. “Bunraku’ started in Osaka at the beginning of Edo period by Uemura Bunrakuken who was one of the performer of ‘Ningyo Joruri’. Popular Manzai on television nowadays used to be a religious performing art called ‘Senshu Banzai’ since old days. ‘Senshu Banzai’ is a symbolic expression of long life like 1000 years to 10,000 years. It is the expression you want to be just like Norito. It changed to Manzai that pursue only laughter.
5. Risk management

 

We now know that Kiyome Yaku worked at the scene of police organization.Kiyome Yaku was a local guard against crime, and they seized criminals at the scene. It’s a common sense in Japanese police history. (Nihon no Keisatsu; published by Keisatsu Seido Chosa kai) It was a job at the scene handled by risk management organization that was necessary for local societies like farming village, fishing village, mountain village, and a town.
Police organization for risk management is modernized in Meiji period. But, it was not a reform from inside of the organization or overcoming the weak point of it. It was just imitating the police of Paris and New York. Japanese government cut out Kiyome Yaku from the job, and accepted unemployed lower class Samurais of Edo period and farmers as a policemen.
In the background of such modernization, there was a prejudice and discrimination to Kiyome Yaku. High officials of Meiji government didn’t try to understand about the social function of Kiyome yaku, and they got rid of the target of taboo from police organization. (Buraku Sabetsu o Kokufuku suru Shisou)
The scene of Kebiishi in ancient times was handled by hinin. It’s not fixed like Edo period, but Kebiishik was the target of prejudice and contempt. Japanese had been neglected the people who worked at the scene of risk management. They had been excluded as a taboo and discriminated for a long time from ancient times to the end of Edo period.
According to Japanese history like above, we can see the mental composition of Japanese to ignore, exclude, and discriminate the people who took care of the scene of risk management. This composition is in common with the doctor in Edo period had no skill of dissection. We had to overcome the composition in the modern period. Instead of overcoming the composition, we imported Western culture. It’s a phenomenon of no quality change. There for, double standard is born, and there is a blank in Japanese mentality.
Japanese lack of risk management is pointed out often in the world nowadays. The reason goes back to importing Western culture. Japanese character like ‘a tendency to depend on somebody’, ‘vagueness’, and ‘real intention and public position’ have been multiplied inside of Japanese.

 

VIII. Traveling alone

 

Many friends from my village who are around my age are living in Tokyo and in Osaka now. When I meet them, I enjoy talking about happy memories. It is a usual friendship within the limits. But, it is different if we talk about our village, especially about an issue of buraku. Nobody wants to touch or talk about it. When there is somebody who is not burakumin, it is clear that they never want to talk about buraku. Because, they are living hiding that they are burakumin. Most of the time, they are married hiding about buraku. Therefore, they never talk about it in front of their own family. It’s understandable, but very sad. I do not try to talk about buraku unreasonably. My friends understand about my job, and they try not to have relationship with me in everyday life. So, we are becoming alienated.
Most of my relatives are hiding about buraku, too. My acquaintances who are married within buraku and living in my village also do not welcome me. They are avoiding to talk about an issue of buraku. No.1 reason to do so is that they do not want their children to know about it. And that is the mental situation of most of burakumin in Japan. They cannot have a constructive image to be a burakumin, and feel humiliation about the discrimination that has a negative image.
When I published my first novel, my aunt asked me. “Will you please use a pen name?’” Her last name is Suenaga that is different from mine. But I did a side job of night guard at her sanatorium when I was in the university. She worried if her colleague realized her as a burakumin from my name.
I answered her. “I will publish my book with my real name.” It might cause discrimination around me, or it might not. I thought about to use me as a guinea pig to get to know what really happens. I would fight back with my aunt if she got discriminated. I couldn’t think of what was the most effective way to fight back. But I knew that I could do something.
My cousin who was married and was living in Osaka suggested me to use a pen name, too. I felt little sorry for him because he was using Kawamoto as his family name. I felt like losing something important if I was afraid of discrimination, and used a pen name. It might cloud the truth around me.
I have a cousin who owns a snack bar in Yokohama. It’s already more than 20 years ago, she experienced awful discrimination when it became clear that she is a burakumin. She had met a man from Nagano prefecture. He was a cook at the Imperial Hotel, and my cousin was a room service staff.
Right after the engagement, the man confessed her that he had a older brother who commit suicide because he was strongly opposed to marry a woman from buraku by his family and relatives.
My cousin was astonished. She came to me to consult with. She thought that his family would oppose their marriage if she said that she was a burakumin. She asked me whether she should tell the truth or not. I’ve never heard of such a case.
I was surprised, too. I told her like following.
“ I do not think you have to tell him that you are burakumin. When you talk about your hometown with him, you feel necessity to tell him about it, tell him naturally.”
They married. She took him to her hometown 2 years later. It is what people who hide about buraku try to avoid. It was difficult for her to tell him about buraku. So, she thought that he would notice about it when she took him to the village. There were posters about buraku liberation, and institutions. She thought that it is all right whether he noticed or not. As she thought about it, he noticed that she is a burakumin. His attitude changed. He went to the United States 2 years later to train as a cook, and he didn’t come home. 1 year later since he went to the United States, he asked her to give him a divorce. He said that he has a lover in the United States. Then, she went to the United States to talk with him for 3 times. She wanted to know why she has to divorce him. He never said anything about buraku. She didn’t talk about it with him, neither. But, she confirms that there was discrimination against buraku between she and her ex-husband. He had just asked her to forgive him. She felt pity for him, and divorced him. Then, she came back to Japan. Since then, she lives alone in Yokohama.
When we talk about Nagano prefecture, ‘Hakai’(1906) written by Toson Shimazaki who was a novelist in Meiji period is famous. Ushimatsu Segawa, an elementary school teacher in Nagano prefecture, is a burakumin, and he is hiding about it as his father suggests. One day, Ushimatsu is provoked by the activist who does not hide about himself. Ushimatsu tells his student that he is a burakumin. After that, Ushimatsu quits school, and try to go to the United States, a country of freedom. The ending of the story was criticized by the people who promoted the buraku liberation movement. Compare to the novel, what is happening in the real life is reversed.
My cousin runs a snack bar in Yokohama after the divorce. I went to the bar several times. She keeps 4 to 5 girls working in the bar, and she is doing well. Talking about buraku is a taboo at her place, but her divorce story is now a side dish. The story doesn’t have a part about buraku.
I often experienced hardened and chilled air among drinking people when I talked about an issue of buraku. An issue of buraku has only negative image and it’s not fun to talk about. I want to make it a fun thing to talk about.
In the present situation around me, there is a sad thing. Though I publish many books, there is nobody in my family, relatives, and my friends from hometown welcome my books. I want to solve an issue of buraku, and am writing books about it. There are 2 persons whom I have been sending all my books to let them know how I feel. I don’t know if they read all of them or not. But, I hope that they will be glad in their mind when they read my books. One is my senior from hometown and he supported my idea Unfortunately, he passed away early. The other one is my cousin who is the most serious person in my relatives, and I thought he understood about me. As his wife is a burakumin, there is no need to hide about anything specially.
But, one day, other relative told me that my cousin hided all my books from his family. I sometimes met him and his wife, and asked about my hometown. When I was in Tsuyama, we played just like brothers. Such a man is hiding my books from his family. This is the reality around me. I might say that it is the truth I can get for not using a pen name.

 

IX. A discovery of a cultural system

 

1. Whole image of Japanese culture

 

Intellectuals in Japan have been discussing over and over about that ‘There isn’t philosophy and system in Japanese culture’. (Nihonjin wa Shisou shitaka; written by Takaaki Yoshimoto, Takeshi Umehara, and Shinichi Nakazawa) On the other hand, conservative people regarded a culture centering the Emperor system as tradition. There is no firm philosophy or systematic idea in it.
Some people say that an unbroken line of Emperors is the cultural system of Japan. But, a family line is not philosophy or thought. The Emperor system is a culture look alike maintained by authority, power and taboo. Progressive intellectuals have an idea centering universality of Western culture. Those two streams of idea is a characteristic of modernization after the Meiji Restoration that imitated Western cultures. Two streams of imitated foreign culture and traditional culture go back to the influence of Chinese culture in ancient period. Chinese character was introduced to Japan in 7th century. And almost all of the aristocracy and politicians at the time lean toward Chinese culture. And Chinese culture became an axis of Japanese culture. Those aristocrats supported the Emperor system.
Characteristic of Japanese culture with above complicated passage of time is regarded as the culture of mental live together consists of imported culture and traditional culture. There is no independent axis in such Japanese culture is an influential opinion nowadays. (Nippon no Shiso; written by Masao Maruyama)
There are two definitive lacks in the above cultural discussion. One is culture of oral tradition that belongs to illiterate people scorned by aristocrats who considered using characters were essential for their life since ancient time. The other lack is the culture of buraku that is made by the people who touched chaos and Kegare.
Japanese originally had a culture of oral tradition. Most of Japanese didn’t use characters until enactment of the educational system in the beginning of Meiji period (1872). Even though, we had the high level culture. The culture of Jomon period and Yayoi period is symbolizing Japanese culture of oral tradition. There were also certain idea and system in them. But, Japanese ignored and neglected it, and lost sight of original Japanese culture.
As I talked about the culture of buraku by now, it is about half of the original Japanese culture. Remaining half of it is related to the culture of oral tradition. There is the culture of oral tradition in many parts of Japanese traditional culture. There is a music world without a score. The world of handicrafts and manual arts that keeps an attitude “You should learn everything by your body, not by your head.” There is a world of entertainment. The culture of oral tradition and the world of entertainment is directly related to the culture of buraku. I would like to talk about them in the following section.

 

2. The culture of oral tradition

 

① A wish to the nature and a law of nature

 

There are old festivities of the people who worked in the sea, mountain, and rice field to get something to eat from the nature. They wished for rich products, and thanked for comfortable life. Most of the festivities are the culture of oral tradition. I call them labor festivities. The festivity done beforehand is called advanced festivity. It regards vitality of nature as God. The festivity is a wish for God. It’s a world of Japanese animism.
If labor festivities are written down, they might have written by farmers after enactment of the educational system, or by aristocrats and monks before the system.
There is a certain rule in an advanced festivity. It is same as homeopathic magic in sympathetic magic, a law of similarity (Golden Bough) that is analyzed by James Frazer. A wish, ‘I want to be like this’, is expressed by songs, physical expressions, and pictures. It’s mainly expressions imitating works and it is what cultural anthropology call symbolic expression.

 

② Festivities of farming ~ expression of Ta Asobi

 

There are many advance festivity about growing rice in farming villages. People express their wish by imitating working farmers in the garden of shrine and so forth in early spring. There are several calling names for the advance festivity like ‘Otaue Matsuri’, and ‘Haru Ta Uchi’. It represents all the works they do throughout a year like plowing a rice field to begin, and planting rice plants, driving insects and birds away, and harvesting rice and so forth. ‘Ta Asobi’ is the typical festivity. It has been doing since the period Nihon Shoki was written. ‘Ta Mai’ in Nihon Shoki is considered to be ‘Ta Asobi’. (Nippon no Dento Geino)

 

 

③ Festivities of fishing

 

Surrounded by sea, Japan has many advance festivities about fishing. For example, ‘Kujira Odori’ of Sanrinzaki, Wakayama, ‘Yu Toue (=catching fish)’ of Okinawa, and so forth. Kohzujima, Izu Hichito has ‘Katsuo Tsuri Matsuri’ every summer. The island’s main Industry was fishing bonitos. The festivity imitates fishermen go out to sea and fish bonitos in the yard of a shrine.
As I talked about before, familiar Ebisu is a statue of a fisherman who smiles with a sea bream caught by his fishing rod. The sea bream represents wealth from fishing. The wealth becomes God of commerce and farming. The law of similarity works here as people wish ‘I want to be like this.’

 

④ Festivities of hunting

 

Eating meat was prohibited early in Japanese history. Therefore, the culture of it rarely comes up to the surface. But, there is some old festivities of hunting remained.
‘Ontousai’ of Suwa shrine, Nagano prefecture is said to be a celebration since Jomon period. It is a celebration to eat wild animals like a deer, a pheasant, a rabbit, wild boar and so forth with God (animism).
A famous festivity of hunting is ‘Iyomante (=seeing off bears) of Ainu culture. Ainu people continue to eat meat and their culture is also continued.
They raise a bear as God of nature, and they eat the grown up bear together with all the villagers. They appreciate it, and see off the bear going back to the nature by the celebration.
Order to stop eating meat didn’t reach Okinawa neither. ‘Yama Shishi Toe (=hunting wild boar)’ is an expression imitating to hunt a wild boar. ‘Shika Odori’ seen in many part of northeast Japan has the explaining story like following. Deer damage the farm field, and it apologizes to human. I think the story is made on the base of prohibition of meat eating. Since Jomon period, people in this area have been eating deer. It is appropriate to think about it as a festivity of hunting.
As we take a look at typical culture of oral tradition, we can say that they are entertainment as religious services with a sense of God. They are usually called folk art.
3. Change in festivity and it’s system

 

① History of entertainment ・ God to human

 

These labor Festivities have not evaluated by Meiji government, and some of them were prohibited. As the Emperor system became absolute, people’s tradition like the culture of oral tradition was neglected or ignored. For example, there were more than 300 places that were doing ‘Ta Asobi’ at the beginning of the modern period. (No to Ta Asobi no Kenkyu; written by Tsuneyasu arai) Right now, Ta Asobi remains in little more than 10 place.
Recently, movement to preserve Ta Asobi is becoming active together with many other festivities. Some people try to restore the festivities. There is a special feature in such movement. Same as Norito, there is a tendency to value the same form of the festivity as old times. Of course, original form should be treasured. But, recent way of preservation in most of the case is only looking at the forms and forgetting about the original meaning of the festivities. The absolute Emperor system in the modern period connected unjustly a myth of Emperor to the labor festivities even though they have no relation with the emperor originally.
Therefore the whole Japanese culture lost simple animism. And, in many cases, it is just supporting a myth of Emperor, nationalism, and ultra-nationalism. It is necessary to classify the festivities, and find out the democratic culture.
There is a culture that is reformed to the art of entertainment with the background of the labor festivities. The culture took a different road from the Emperor system, and nationalism. That is No, Kabuki, and Bunraku created by Senmin, Kiyome Yaku, and Kawaramono in Muromachi and Edo period.
I already talked about the process that ‘Ebisu’, a festivity of fishing, became Bunraku, and ‘Senshu Banzai’ became Manzai. In their process, we can see the transition from ‘God to human’ like the Renaissance. In other word, it was a transition from entertainment as religious service to the art of entertainment. It is understandable that there is a cultural system in the transition. There are many examples like ‘Ebisu’ . When we take a look at the transitions in general, we can find a new culture.
It’s easy to understand when we see ‘Shika Odori’ in detail. ‘Shika Odori’ is called ‘Shishi Odori’ , or ‘Shishi Mai’. ‘Shishi’ is an old Japanese word meaning animal meat. Inoshishi came from ‘Shishi’. It seems like ‘Shishi’ is the word from the culture of oral tradition. When it was represented by a character, ‘獅子’was used from imported Chinese “Shishi Mai”. When traditional culture mixed with imported culture, it lost the original meaning and an idea. Addition to that, Chinese character for ‘Shishi Mai’ express Chinese meaning and an idea for it. Because ‘Shishi Mai’ was written in Chinese character, Chinese meaning and an idea became mainstream in Japan. Shishi in China is a guardian angel representing the strength of a lion.
‘Shika Odori’ is performed by one person. It is called Hitoridachi. ‘Shishi Mai’ is performed by two persons. It is called Futaridachi. It is recognized by folklore that Hitoridachi Shishi Mai is the ancient Japanese Shishi Mai.
There is a good illustration to see the meaning and an idea of Hitoridachi Shishi Mai. It’s ‘Hokahi Bito no Uta’ from Manyoushu(385). There is ‘Shika no Uta’ in it. ‘Shika no Uta’ is a song to celebrate the hunted deer being used as a food, decorations and variety of things. It was a kadozuke Gei (=entertainment goes from door to door) with a sense of God. This Kadozuke Gei is considered to become ‘Shika Odori’ in northern east area of Japan, now. (Watashi no Manyoshu; written by Shin Ooka)
‘Shika Odori’ has connection to ‘Sanbiki Shishi’ (=Hitoridachi Shishimai) that is active in farming area of kanto now. It’s a festivity as religious service. And it transforms to ‘Echigo Jishi’ (=Kakubee Jishi) in Niigata prefecture which is a stunt entertains public. Echigo Jishi is made to Kabuki, and it transformed to human art of entertainment.
‘Kakubee’ of Kabuki (first performance in 1828) is a love story between a performer of Kakubee Jishi who is a farmer from Echigo and a woman performer of Edo who is a Kiyome Yaku. The story has nothing to do with the sense of God. Following is the song from ‘Kakubee’.
“This is an ungraceful truth. I just wanted you to like me. Even an ant has a dream to climb up to heaven. I know that I cannot be your wife.”
The story is about a man and a woman who cannot marry because of the status system.
There is a system in transformation from the labor festivity or folk entertainment to Kadozuke Gei, and to the art of stage performance. We can’t forget about the culture of buraku to see the system of the transformation. We can easily find an idea and philosophy in the system. The wish ‘I want to be like this’ was expressed using actions and languages in the labor festivity and folk entertainment. The idea of the labor festivity and folk entertainment is continued to be representative expression even after they became an art of entertainment. Forms of No and Kabuki are the representative expression.

 

X. As a Civilization of Buraku ~ recycle・Combining circulation

 

Social function of Kiyome Yaku (eta,hinin status) in Edo period can be considered as a civilizing device in the theory of civilization nowadays. It’s same as that police station and police box are the devices of risk management. It takes no time to recognize that a slaughter house, leather craft factory, and meat shop is the device to support diet and every day life. Farming, mountain, fishing villages, and cities are also the device. In the same meaning, Kiyome Yaku in Edo period was also the civilizing device that is essential.
I consider about the civilization as follows. ‘Civilization is the whole life of the human which includes man made device groups and institution groups compare to the nature. Or it is the whole living system. In the civilization, a culture is valuable.’ In other word, ‘Civilization is a system of human side compare to independently circulating eco system. (Kindai Sekai ni okeru Nihon Bunmei; written by Tadao Umesao)
According to the previous idea about civilization, said to be 6000 burakus all over Japan were placed as the civilizing device to Kiyome (=purify) Kegare in the process of Japanese history. From the civilizing divice, the idea of culture = value is born.

 

Many kinds of classification about the whole nature as a subject of eco system are possible. Simple idea is to divide it to Megumi that is the productive part nature gives human and to Chaos & Kegare that is the destructive part.
When we think about Japanese idea of Kiyome (the whole Kiyome including shrine and buraku) together with live or death of every living thing, and eco system including a food chain, the magic religious Kiyome is limited to making a wish and a play. And we are repeating the same thing still now. On the other hand, the culture of buraku has been recycling the destructive part of nature. The culture of buraku has been materializing the circulation of ‘Ke, Hare, and Kegare’ that is the idea of folklore. After all, Kiyome Yaku in Edo period is recognized its existence as a system to recycle the destructive part of the nature. I call it ‘Buraku Civilization’.
Both of the devices to civilize, productive device and the device of recycle system, cannot be lacked to materialize a civilization of living human. Therefore, we need to combine both devices, and should not to oppose or eliminate them.
It is needless to say that the combined system of civilization is adapted to eco system of Japanese nature. When we think about the theme of 21 century, symbiosis of human and nature, the combined system of civilization is a positive theme and a philosophy. So, an issue of buraku will be solved spontaneously.