What is a Burakumin in Japan?
What is a Burakumin in Japan?
burakumin, (Japanese: “hamlet people”, ) also called Eta, (“pollution abundant”), outcaste, or “untouchable,” Japanese minority, occupying the lowest level of the traditional Japanese social system.
Is Yakuza a Burakumin?
The first Yakuza were members of a social caste called the Burakumin. They were the lowest wretches of humanity, a social group so far below the rest of society that they weren’t even allowed to touch other human beings. The Burakumin were the executioners, the butchers, the undertakers, and the leather workers.
What were outcasts called in Japan?
Burakumin
Burakumin is a polite term for the outcasts from the four-tiered Japanese feudal social system. Burakumin literally means simply “people of the village.” In this context, however, the “village” in question is the separate community of outcasts, who traditionally lived in a restricted neighborhood, a sort of ghetto.
What does Buraku mean in Japanese?
hamlet
Buraku is a Japanese word referring to village or hamlet. The word began to acquire a new connotation after the administration in Meiji era (1868 – 1912) started to use “Tokushu Buraku” (special hamlet) in reference to former outcaste communities.
How are Burakumin treated in Japan?
Burakumin acquired a hereditary status of untouchability and became an unofficial caste of the Tokugawa class system during the Edo period. Burakumin were victims of severe discrimination and ostracism in Japanese society, and lived as outcasts, in their own separate villages or ghettos.
Is Burakumin Korean?
Burakumin is a term for ethnic Japanese people with occupations considered as being associated with kegare (穢れ, “defilement”) during Japan’s feudal era, such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, or tanners.
Is burakumin an ethnicity?
The Burakumin (from the words buraku, meaning community or hamlet and min, meaning people) are not an ethnic minority, but rather a caste- or descent-based group. They therefore share with other Japanese the same language, religion, customs and physical appearances.