Japanese Untouchables?

firkin

firkin

Joined
Jan 26, 2002
Messages
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Danny...

Burakumin??

I've read a couple of places that people who work with leather or are butchers are thought to unclean, even in modern Japan and constitute and underclass similar to lower castes in India and Nepal.

That this is a well-kept secret, and continues today.

Any observations?
 
Firkin,
I admit not having heard that term before now.
I knew "eta" and "hinin" though.

Like I've said before, this is the land before time.
These people havent gotten past the idea of "races," that the Nazis were so fond of.

I have literally had teachers here argue with me that Japanese people did not come from China or Korea or the Phillippines and that they were not Ainu, but some separate, special race that came from some mysterious place and that eventually, archaeologists will prove it.

As I have also said before, I dont believe these are bad people. I believe they have an outdated, ignorant, old-fashioned CULTURE that refuses to connect with the reality-awareness of the rest of the world.
 
Anthropologically speaking, this is a classic example of "spiritual pollution."

People who are sick, women (becasue of menses) and persons who touch dead things are considered "dirty."
Usually, you only see this in "primitive"cultures.

(we dont use that word ((primitive)) professionally, but it is useful for laymen, so we do use it sometimes)

I find it very useful to look at cultures of Oceania when trying to understand the Japanese. Despite their declarations of uniqueness, they share a lot in common with those cultures.

In the big cities, you dont see this so much. People there are arseholes, but they are less likely to start acting like the peasants from some Kurosawa flick.
Out in the country, those stone-age beliefs start to appear.

Hey, I am one of the "hinin".
(I have a large japanese tattoo, it covers all of my back and buttocks and upper thighs) I am a dirty "irezumi."
And yet, I am a white skinned, blue-eyed American who teaches these people's children.

I LOVE making Japanese people reconsider their assumptions about class and caste and democracy and tattoos and freedom of expression and racism and all that!

The last time I heard some guy start talking bad about people with tattoos, i said " oh really? My gandfather had a dragon on his chest and he was a school superintendent. My brother, sister, sister in law, and several cousins have tattoos. Maybe you should be more careful before you insult my family again.."

He never opened his mouth around me again. I said it in front of the entire staffroom, so I am hoping that this idea spread out from me like a social bug-bomb and stimulated a little thought.

Will they re-think their racist assumpitons ?
I dont know.
Will they try not to spew that derision in front of Japanese- speaking foreigners who are willing to call you out in public?
probably , and that's a step forward, isnt it?

Over here, it is considered "immoral" to correct people in public.
It is also considered "immoral" to complain.

I have done as much as I could to try to remedy that BS.

Like I said to one teacher " If nobody ever complained, we'd still be using stone tools."
 
The more I read from you Danny the more impressed I become.
Your very well educated. I admire that...
 
please dont say that.
i am as lost as the day i was born.
i went to college and learned alot of interesting stuff, but most of you have a much better grasp of the meaning of life than I do.
 
DIJ is a special guy......:D :p :footinmou
 
I bet Einstein ate ho-hos in his underwear sometimes.
:)

Actually thanks Danny, your reports from Japan are always interesting to read.
 
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