At the heart of modern Japan there remains an intractable and divisive social problem with its roots in pre-history, namely the ongoing social discrimination against the D?wa communities, otherwise known as Buraku. Their marginalization and isolation within society as a whole remains a veiled yet contested issue. Buraku studies, once largely ignored within Japan’s academia and by scholarly publishers, have developed considerably in the first decades of the twenty-first century, as the extensive bibliographies of both Japanese and English sources provided here clearly demonstrates. The authors of the present study published in Japanese in 2016 and translated here by the Oxford scholar Ian Neary, have been able to incorporate this most recent data. Because of its importance as the first Buraku history based on this new research, a wider readership was always the authors’ principal focus. Yet, it also provides a valuable source book for further study by those wishing to develop their knowledge about the subject from an informed base. This history of the Buraku communities and their antecedents is the first such study to be published in English.

Translator’s Preface by Ian NEARY Foreword by TERAKI Nobuaki List of Figures PART I Chapter 1: Establishment of the Japanese State and the Formation and Transformation of Status · Status in the small states of pre-history · Status in the Yamato state · The creation of the Yamato state and the formation of clans and ranks Chapter 2: Formation of the Ritsury? State Structure and the Status System · The formation of the ritsury? structure · The creation of a senmin system beneath the status system of the ritsury? structures · Senmin in the ritsury? system · The disruption and dismantling of the ritsury? status system · The role played by immigrants and their social position · Strategies and attitudes to those living on the islands to the North, the North-east and the South · The strengthening of discrimination based on ideas of pollution in the Heian period · The origins of occupational discrimination against butchers and leather workers Chapter 3: Formation and Development of Society in the Middle Ages and the Lifestyle and Culture of Discriminated People · The structure and development of society in the Middle Ages · Features of the status system of the Middle Ages · Formation and living conditions of the eta – kiyome, saiku, kawaramono – in the early Middle Ages · Hinin of the early Middle Ages and their way of life · Sanjo and their lives in the early Middle Ages · Transformation of society in the Middle Ages · Work and livelihood of the kawaramono: eta, kiyome and saiku in the late Middle Ages · The work of hinin, sanjo (sh?moji) and their lives in the late Middle Ages · Kawata in the era of Warring States (Sengoku Jidai) Chapter 4: Establishment of Kawata and Ch?ri Status – the Buraku of the Early Modern Period · Rule of the Toyotomi, the early Tokugawa regime, and the kawata/ch?ri · Bakuhan structure of rule and the status system · Formation of the kawata and ch?ri – the Buraku of the early modern period · Reality of the status regulations of the Edo Period · Control of discriminated people and the discrimination policy of the feudal lords in the early Edo Period · Occupations of the kawata and ch?ri in the early Edo Period · Responsibilities of kawata and ch?ri in the early Edo Period Chapter 5: Discriminated Groups of the Early Modern Period · Formation of hinin status groups and their responsibilities · Other discriminated groups Chapter 6: Development of Early Modern (Kinsei) Society and Discriminated People · Social trends in the mid-Edo period and the discrimination policies used by the Bakufu authorities and feudal lords to control discriminated groups · Occupations of the kawata and ch?ri in the mid-Edo period · Social context of discriminated people in the mid-Edo period · Religion and kawata/ch?ri in the mid-Edo period Chapter 7: Dislocation and Collapse of Early Modern Society and Discriminated People · Social trends in late-Edo Japan and discriminated people · Changes in the occupations of the kawata and ch?ri in the later Edo Period · Demographic change among the discriminated communities and its impact · Struggles of discriminated groups and the development of emancipatory thought 108 · Discriminated people and social change on the verge of the Restoration – the eve of the liberation edict PART II Chapter 8: What was the ‘Buraku Problem’ in the Modern Period? · Questioning society · Buraku – discriminated Buraku – D?wa districts · The boundaries that replaced status · Start of the modern Buraku problem –the Liberation Edict · Debate in the K?gisho · Promotion by the Minbush? and the Treasury Chapter 9: Signs of Discrimination Invented · Maintenance of ‘old customs’ · Rejection of discrimination by the ‘Japanese Enlightenment’ · Freedom, people’s rights movement and the ‘Buraku problem’ · New ‘signifiers’ – hotbeds of poverty, filth and disease · The look that says ‘different’ Chapter 10: Discriminated Buraku are ‘Discovered’ · Excluded from the new village system · Barrier of the ie family system that impeded (and impedes) marriage · Okura Toro’s Biwako (Song of Biwa) · How ‘one’s origins’ stand in the way –from Hakai · Sweeping away signs of discrimination · The start of Buraku improvement policies · The ‘race’ line Chapter 11: Seeking Unification of the Empire · Racism and moral training · From ‘Special Buraku’ to ‘Buraku of Poor People’ · Formation of Yamato D?shikai · Constructing an Origins Theory for ‘Harmonious Reconciliation’ · Formation of the Imperial Way Society · New lands – movement and migration · Inversion of ends and means – Yamato D?shikai and Imperial Way Society · Enlightenment of ordinary Buraku people Chapter 12: Rice Riots and Racial Equality · Emergence of the rice riots · A focus of repression · I mages of the rioters and ‘special people’ · ‘Compassionate conciliation’ · Demand for abolition of racial discrimination and discrimination against Burakumin · Crushing of the racial origin theories · Creation of the D?aikai Chapter 13: Liberation by Our Own Efforts · Investigating ‘self-awareness’ · Swallow Association (Tsubamekai) – seeking a discrimination-free society · Recovery of pride – the formation of the national Suiheisha · The Suiheisha Declaration · Experiences of discrimination mount up · Women of the Buraku – patience and submission · Formation of the women’s Suiheisha · The Hyongpyongsa and Kaiheisha Chapter 14: Liberation or Conciliation? · Aiming for socialism · Reactions to the Suiheisha – the Serada village incident · The ‘same’ proletarian class? · Stubborn defence of ‘Buraku’ consciousness · From the Central Social Project Council Regional Improvement Division to the Central Project Council · A moral movement or an economic movement? Chapter 15: ‘National Unity’ and its Contradictions · Economic problems rise to the surface · Suiheisha dissolution theory and its modification · Joining the nation · Onset of total war in China and the wartime collaboration of the Suiheisha · Subordination of ‘National Unity’ to the ‘Building of a Greater East Asia’ · Start of Y?wa education · Implications of race – minzoku · Discrimination as unpatriotic activity · IRR A and the formation of D?wa H?k?kai · ‘Resource regulation projects’ and migration to Manchuria · Extinction of the D?wa movement Chapter 16: Post-war Reforms and the Re-launch of the Buraku Liberation Movement · Formation of the Buraku National Liberation Committee (BNLC) · Against the Emperor System · ‘As long as there are aristocrats there will be outcastes’ · Discrimination Buraku get left behind · Requesting a national policy –the formation of BLL · Women rise up · Creation of the National D?wa Education Research Association Chapter 17: Making Citizens: Becoming Citizens · Making citizens · Acknowledging the state’s responsibility –the D?taishin · New limits · Sayama Incident · BLL grows and broadens · The ‘alley’ swindle – the tree country and root country Chapter 18: Absorption and Exclusion into ‘Civil Society’ · D?wa policy – re-examination of the BLL · What are ‘Burakumin’? · Talking of ‘pride’ · Minority group solidarity · From D?wa to human rights – the end of the Special Measures Law Chapter 19: Looking at the Buraku Problem Now · Recent opinion poll data · Retrograde step or negation? · Looking at ‘civil society’ · Acquiring an understanding of universal human rights Afterword Bibliography Index