Session 33: Beyond the Buraku: Methodological Approaches to Research in and on Buraku Districts in Japan

Organizer: Christopher Bondy, University of Hawaii, Manoa

Chair and Discussant: John H. Davis, Jr., Michigan State University

Burakumin have been of particular interest to Western observers because of their paradoxical position as an "invisible" minority lacking any conspicuous distinctions from mainstream Japanese society. However, the buraku issue itself continues to be quite visible within the history, social relations, culture and the politics of Japan. This panel wrestles with the problem of being attentive to the ambiguity of the category "burakumin" and generating more complex models for comprehending the buraku issue by inviting scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds who have conducted research on the buraku issue. The question each panelist will address is how one conducts research on an "invisible" group. As a result, it is anticipated that the cross-disciplinary dialogue should be of interest to a broad audience.

The presenters bring different analytical foci and research methodologies to bear on the same topic: the buraku issue. From a historical perspective, Jeffrey Bayliss explores how oral histories are used within buraku communities to draw connections between discrimination and the nation-state. Christopher Bondy discusses the process of conducting research in schools in two different buraku communities while exploring how schools attempt to structure a buraku identity. Sayuri Oyama considers buraku issues as they are found in the realm of literature, paying particular attention to the written work of Nakagami Kenji. Finally, Emily Su-lan Reber Porter discusses methodological issues in the study of law and the Burakumin.

Literary Approaches to Buraku Studies: Reading Nakagami Kenji

Sayuri I. Oyama, Sarah Lawrence College

From Shimazaki Toson’s "Hakai" (1906) to Sumii Sue’s Hashi no nai kawa (1971–92), literary representations of buraku have often drawn overt characterizations of discrimination or how burakumin have overcome discrimination. The writings of postwar writer Nakagami Kenji (1946–1992) have also been linked to buraku, not for such overt portrayals of discrimination but based on Nakagami’s own background growing up in a buraku district in Shingu. In his short stories and novellas, Nakagami never explicitly identifies the community he depicts as a buraku, but rather a roji (alleyway). While some critics read the roji as a metonym for buraku, Nakagami’s literary texts resist such easy elision through his use of language. Nakagami’s late 1970s travel narrative, Kishu: Ki no Kuni, Ne no Kuni Monogatari, also plays with stereotypes regarding the "dark side" of the Kishu region yet undermines them through his narrative. In this text, Nakagami creates his own narrative map of the territory that connects place, discrimination, and literature.

This paper examines how Nakagami Kenji’s writing complicates the relationship between language and buraku identity, as well as the notion of burakumin as mere victims of discrimination. While focusing on Nakagami’s writing, I will also address the larger question of what literary analysis has to contribute to buraku studies more broadly.

Getting in and Getting Along: Fieldwork in Two Buraku Communities

Christopher Bondy, University of Hawaii, Manoa

This paper explores how two different communities and schools structure a minority buraku identity. The research focuses on two communities with burakumin populations: Takagawa, a highly mobilized, open community with a strong Buraku Liberation League (BLL) presence in which buraku issues are actively engaged, and Kuromatsu, a comparatively closed community in which buraku issues are noticeably absent. Stressing education, both formal and informal, as a necessary component in overcoming discrimination, the BLL and school policies in Takagawa contributed to creating a strong buraku identity, an identity that was missing in Kuromatsu.

The youth of both communities are in a protective cocoon where risk is minimized, based the Japanese educational system where interactions with outsiders are kept to a minimum. This research centers on the youth in their final year of junior high school and subsequently follows them beyond the protective cocoon, as they move into high school. This provides an opportunity to see how identities are maintained over time and space.

Gaining access to both sites depended on the close interaction with gatekeepers in the community. The reaction to my presence in each community was similar among the students, but quite different among the community leaders. In one community, I was able to openly discuss buraku issues, in the other I was not even permitted to use the word burakumin. The difference in approaches taken by each community then framed how I was able to conduct research.

Methodological Issues in Historical Research on the Buraku Problem in Modern Japan

Jeffrey P. Bayliss, Trinity College

This presentation provides an overview of the historiography of research on buraku issues, both pre- and postwar, examining the latter in particular in terms of the problems and themes scholars examined and their approaches to the subject matter at hand, while linking these to the postwar political background in the ongoing buraku liberation movement which informed the choice of such themes and methods. The late1950s through the 1970s were years of tremendous activity for the buraku liberation movement, but also years of intense political factionalism within it. These decades produced a tremendous amount of scholarship on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the origin of anti-buraku discrimination to the tactics of the Suiheisha, the premier buraku rights organization during the pre-1945 period, to combat such discrimination. While this research provided many important insights into the history it explored, it often had a doctrinaire tendency to legitimize the claims and prerogatives of a particular faction in the postwar liberation movement over those of other factions. In recent years, researchers have begun to explore buraku history for perspectives that are more or less "liberated" from the politics of the liberation movement, and have begun to probe the complex relationship between discrimination and the rise of the modern nation-state in Japan. With this development has come a renewed interested in local history, especially oral history, as a means of exploring this relationship. The presentation will conclude with the presenter’s own thoughts and observations on the methodological problems involved in such fieldwork.

Buraku Liberation and the Law

Emily Su-lan Reber Porter

My paper seeks to identify actions of the Japanese government and buraku liberation movement that might best facilitate the realization of buraku liberation. In essence, it is problem-solving in nature. It is based upon my hands-on research in Japan, including interviews with leaders of buraku liberation movement, buraku people, and others. The research focuses on viewpoints of largely opposing constituents in Japan: two main buraku liberation organizations, buraku and non-buraku people, and anecdotes demonstrating widely diverging understandings of buraku mondai. A case study of Asaka buraku makes the analysis concrete.

My research began at a time when there was little knowledge of buraku mondai in the United States, and little written in English. Thus, the paper begins with an introduction to the origins of discrimination against burakumin, efforts of both the liberation movement and the Japanese government to combat discrimination against burakumin, present conditions of burakumin, and policies regarding buraku mondai. It proceeds to current issues surrounding buraku mondai, and concludes in a summary of analytical findings and policy recommendations to eliminate discrimination against, and improve the conditions of, burakumin.

The opposition I, an "outsider," experienced during my research into buraku mondai, often referred to by opponents of my research as "the same of Japan," was a constant challenge. In the end, however, my "outside" perspective, I believe, opened more doors to my research. Many interviewees were ultimately quite curious as to my perspectives on buraku mondai and eager to share their knowledge and opinions with this outsider.