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Concept
Burakumin
Summary
is a term for ethnic Japanese people who are believed to be descended from members of the pre-Meiji castes which were associated with 'defilement', such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. The term encompasses both the historical eta and hinin outcasts.
During Japan's feudal era, these occupations acquired a hereditary status of untouchability, and became an unofficial caste of the Tokugawa class system during the Edo period. Due to severe discrimination and ostracism in Japanese society, these groups came to live as outcasts, in their own separate villages or ghettos. After the caste system was abolished, the term burakumin came into use to refer the former caste members and their descendants, who continued to experience stigmatization and discrimination.
The term burakumin is derived from 部落, a Japanese term which refers literally to a small, generally rural, commune or hamlet. In the regions of Japan where the burakumin issue is much less publicly prominent, such as Hokkaido and Okinawa, buraku is still used in a non-pejorative sense to refer to any hamlet. Historically, the term buraku was used for an outcast community that was discriminated against officially and formally.
A term used much for buraku settlements is 'assimilation districts', an official term for districts designated for government and local authority assimilation projects from 1969 to 2002.
The social issue concerning "discriminated communities" is usually referred to as 'assimilation issues' or, less commonly, 'hamlet issues'.
During the feudal era, the outcastes were termed an abundance of defilement, a term now considered derogatory. Eta towns were termed 穢多村.
Some burakumin refer to their own communities as 'villages' and themselves as 'village people'.
Other outcaste groups from whom buraku may have been descended included the non-human. The definition of hinin, as well as their social status and typical occupations varied over time, but typically included ex-convicts and vagrants who worked as town guards, street cleaners or entertainers.
Official source
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