BURAKUMIN LITERATURE

From ancient times, Japanese society has been stratified into many layers, and among the lowest ranks has existed an “untouchable” class called the eta. Historically they were families living in outlying communities (buraku) composed of those working in “polluted” trades that put them in contact with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers, or leather workers). Although they were legally liberated in 1871 and given the designation “new commoner” (shin-heimin), discrimination continues to this day in certain areas of Japan. The oppression experienced by burakumin in Japan was the subject of a Meiji novel, Shimazaki Toson’s Hakai (1906; tr. The Broken Commandment, 1956). Despite educational disadvantages that burakumin have suffered historically, writers, such as Nakagami Kenji and Sumii Sue (1902–67), have recently emerged from among the burakumin to tell their stories.