Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
42
From Heterotopias to Cultural Landscapes:
On Reconstructing Buraku Leather Towns into ‘Japanese National Spaces’
Flavia Cangià
(National Research Council, Italy)
In this article I analyse the spatial marginalization of ‘buraku areas’ in Japan, and examine the town-making
programmes implemented in some urban buraku districts. In contemporary Japan, people labelled as
‘burakumin’ (hamlet people) are commonly described as the descendants of Tokugawa-era outcasts of Japan,
who were engaged in special occupations (leather industry, meat packing, street entertainment, drum making)
and compelled to live in separate areas. Despite the heterogeneity of these populations, the definition of ‘buraku
origins’ has remained fixed over time and is based on one’s birth, former or current residence in a buraku and
engagement in the buraku industries. I describe the case of Kinegawa and Naniwa leather towns in Tokyo and
Osaka respectively; in particular, the urban revitalization activities organized by the Museum of Education and
Leather Industry (Archives Kinegawa), and the ‘Osaka Naniwa Human Rights Respect Town Making’ project.
The study draws on ethnographic material collected during visits to the neighbourhoods and leather factories
and through my participation in community initiatives and exhibitions. The findings show that buraku minority
networks transform ‘heterotopic’ categorizations in dominant and political discourses (isolation,
marginalization, dirtiness and smell of the leather factory) and reconstruct leather towns by drawing upon both
local and national conceptual spaces (e.g. the ‘nation’, ‘cultural landscapes’, the ‘hometown’, the leather
industry, the ‘city’).
Keywords
: buraku, heterotopia, minority, town-making, museum
Introduction
The ‘buraku’ in Japan is a fluid social construct that encompasses a variety of individuals of
different cultural and social backgrounds, subject to constant reconfigurations and
transformation including industrialization, urbanization, migration, and inter-marriage.
People labelled as ‘burakumin’ (hamlet people) are commonly described as the descendants
of Tokugawa-era outcasts of Japan, who were engaged in special occupations (leather
industry, meat packing, street entertainment, drum making) and compelled to live in separate
areas. Despite the heterogeneity of these populations, the definition of ‘buraku origin’ has
remained fixed over time and is based on one’s birth, former or current residence in a buraku,
and engagement in the buraku industries. After the abolition of the status system in 1871, and
the implementation of the Law for Special Measures for D
ō
wa (‘assimilation’) Projects in
1969, the condition of burakumin ameliorated. However, these people still face
discrimination in terms of access to education and housing, discriminatory messages
circulating on the web, as well as background checks conducted by private agencies for
employment and marriage. The image of ‘buraku’ continues to be associated with poverty,
spatial separation, dirtiness, and ideas of social exclusion.
The discussion that follows lends support to recent research that examines how new
minority identity politics and ‘practices of multiculturalism’ (Hankins 2012) question the
