Editing Burakumin (section)

== Historical origins ==
The predecessors to {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}, called {{Nihongo||{{ill|かわた|ja}}|kawata|lowly people}} or {{Nihongo||{{ill|穢多|ja}}|eta}} formed as a distinct group some time during the [[Heian period]], AD 794–1185. The permeation of [[Buddhism in Japan|Buddhism into Japan]] in the first millennium led to the castigation of meat eating and similar activities. The [[Shinto]] and Buddhist cultures, which aimed for a certain purity of body and mind, considered working with dead animals, blood, or any sort of decaying object as polluting, and hence occupations like butchery and leather tanning were besmirched.{{sfn|Meerman|2009|p=97}} The ''eta'', people who held such occupations, dealt with pollution and were thus considered inferior or sub-human. However, because of their ability to deal with pollution, several myths emerged from the Heian through medieval periods about certain {{transliteration|ja|eta}}'s abilities to cleanse ritual pollution, and in some portrayals even possess magical powers.<ref>{{cite book |last=McCormack |first=Noah Y. |date=2012 |title=Japan's Outcaste Abolition: the Struggle for National Inclusion and the Making of the Modern State |publisher=Routledge |pages=34–5 |isbn=9781136283673 }}</ref> Another outcaste, the {{transliteration|ja|kawata}}, were associated with the tanning industry, and had the exclusive rights to tan hides.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Toriyama |first1=Hiroshi |title=Problems with References to Historical Documents in J. M. Ramseyer, "On the Invention of Identity Politics: The Buraku Outcastes in Japan" |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |date=2021 |url=https://apjjf.org/2021/9/Toriyama-Hirano-Komori.html}}</ref> Prior to the Edo period, these ''burakumin'' (peripatetic or settled) would live outside common population centers and maintained some socio-ethical significance, albeit negligible. They were also employed as mediators in disputes. Spatial and geographic markers played a significant role in the distinction between the ''burakumin'' and other members of society.<ref name= Orbaugh/>

{{transliteration|ja|[[Hinin]]}}, meaning 'non-human', was another pre-{{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} status, applying to certain criminals, beggars and camp followers of [[samurai]]. Their position was more mobile, and they were usually thought to be less polluted.<ref name="Harada 1993">{{cite book |script-title=ja:歴史のなかの米と肉 食物と天皇・差別 |title=Rekishi no naka no Amerika to niku shokumotsu to ten'nō sabetsu |trans-title=Rice and Meat in History Food and the Emperor Discrimination |language=ja |date=1993 |publisher=平凡社 |last=Harada |first=Nobuo |place=Tokyo |isbn=4-582-84147-3}}</ref> The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] regarded beggars as {{transliteration|ja|hinin}} and allowed them to beg in designated areas. They had to work as [[restroom attendant]]s, [[prison officer]]s, or [[executioner]]s.

Within the ''hinin'' and {{transliteration|ja|eta}} communities there would usually be a centralized chieftain<ref>{{Cite web |last=Strusiewicz |first=Cezary Jan |date=2022-12-21 |title=Danzaemon — The Story of Old Japan's Underworld Kings |url=https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/danzaemon-edo-underworld-kings/ |access-date=2023-04-18 |website=Tokyo Weekender |language=ja}}</ref> who was given the exclusive license of tanning, candle wicks and other similar occupations, employing their peers and concentrating great wealth and local power.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=OBA |first1=Yoshirō |date=December 25, 2012 |title=On Business History of Hokkaido Coal Mining and Shipping Corporation(2) |journal=北海学園大学学園論集 |volume=154 |issn=0385-7271 |access-date=October 6, 2020 |url=http://hokuga.hgu.jp/dspace/handle/123456789/2175}}</ref> This chieftain took on the name of {{Nihongo|Danzaemon|[[:ja:弾左衛門|弾左衛門]]}} and was given the authority to supervise the ''hisabetsumin'' living in the hamlets located in the eight provinces of the [[Kantō region|Kanto region]], the [[Izu Province]], as well as in parts of [[Kai Province|Kai]], [[Suruga Province|Suruga]], [[Mutsu Province|Mutsu]] and [[Mikawa Province|Mikawa]] Provinces.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

=== Edo Period ===
In 1603, [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] established the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] and began systematically curbing the autonomy of the feudal [[daimyo]] warlords whose struggles for dominance had defined the [[Sengoku period]].  By exerting control over strategically important daimyo and their [[fief]]s, he centralized power and revitalized the position of [[Shogun]] as the ''de facto'' leader of Japan. His rule brought about the [[Edo period]], which scholars characterize as the unification of Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate, citing [[Neo-Confucianism|neo-Confucian theory]], ruled by dividing the people into four main categories. Older scholars believed that there were {{nihongo3||士農工商|Shi-nō-kō-shō}} of "[[samurai]], peasants (''hyakushō''), craftsmen, and merchants" (''[[chōnin]]'') under the daimyo, with 80% of peasants under the 5% samurai class, followed by craftsmen and merchants.<ref>{{Harvnb|Beasley|1972|p=22}}</ref> However, various studies have revealed since about 1995 that the classes of peasants, craftsmen, and merchants under the samurai are equal, and the old hierarchy chart has been removed from Japanese history textbooks. In other words, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants are not a social pecking order, but a social classification.<ref name="tokyoshoseki">{{cite web|url=https://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/question/e/syakai.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130175341/https://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/question/e/syakai.html|script-title=ja:「士農工商」や「四民平等」の用語が使われていないことについて|language=ja|website=
[[Tokyo Shoseki]] |archive-date=30 November 2023|access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="uki300823">{{cite web|url=https://www.city.uki.kumamoto.jp/2028316|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830135959/https://www.city.uki.kumamoto.jp/2028316|script-title=ja:第35回　教科書から『士農工商』が消えた ー後編ー　令和3年広報うき「ウキカラ」8月号|language=ja|website=[[Uki, Kumamoto]]|archive-date=30 August 2023|access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="shimonoseki">{{cite web|url=https://www.city.shimonoseki.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/58936.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606001503/https://www.city.shimonoseki.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/58936.pdf|script-title=ja:人権意識のアップデート|language=ja|website=[[Shimonoseki]] |archive-date=6 June 2023|access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref> The ''burakumin'' held occupations associated with religious impurity, and were subsequently relegated as outcastes and subject to ostracization in the mainstream Japanese society. Among the members of the outcastes were the ''eta'' (hereditary outcastes), landless peasants and the ''hinin'', which comprised people guilty of certain crimes and their offspring. As Japanese society stabilized, the demand for leather declined, as it was used largely for warring purposes, and along with the Tokugawa caste policy, the ''eta'' were relegated to the peripheries of villages or formed their own communities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=NEARY |first=IAN |date=2003 |title="Burakumin" at the End of History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971613 |journal=Social Research |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=269–270 |jstor=40971613 |issn=0037-783X}}</ref> The ''hinin'' were eventually forced to join in ''eta'' settlements (''buraku''). As the Edo period witnessed local prosperity, the shogunate augmented the differences between the four classes (even between the ''burakumin'' and the ''hinin''), and often used the two outcaste groups as scapegoats.<ref name=Orbaugh>{{Cite book |last=Orbaugh |first=Sharalyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rdzPhsw0u8C&pg=PA393 |title=Japanese Fiction of the Allied Occupation: Vision, Embodiment, Identity |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15546-6 |pages=393 |language=en}}</ref> Various humiliating injunctions mandating certain dress codes or hairstyles for ''burakumin'' were passed, and by the 18th century, they were prohibited from entering temples, homes of common citizens and schools without permission. At this point, the ''burakumin'' were generally economically subsistent on the government's purchase of the war equipment they produced, and they adopted occupations in the military as jailers, torturers and executioners.<ref name=Meerman>{{Cite book |last=Meerman |first=Jacob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UgmUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |title=Socio-economic Mobility and Low-status Minorities: Slow Roads to Progress |date=2009-06-02 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-97281-3 |pages=98 |language=en}}</ref>