Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
50
practices introduced in this article. These work as interesting interpretations of minority roles
within the national context, by looking at the place of marginality within the urban and
national environment. In the next sections, I describe these practices, with a special focus on
exhibitions, adult’s and children’s narratives concerning the locality, and the major elements
employed in these urban reconstruction programmes.
Kinegawa Leather Town
Kinegawa (today known as Higashi Sumida) is an important pig leather, oil, and soap
producing industrial area in the east of Sumida Ward (Tokyo). The area became a buraku
district at the end of the nineteenth century when the city implemented urbanization policies
that led to leather factories and workers being relocated from the old buraku district
(Asakusa) to the suburban areas of Arakawa and Higashi Sumida. The immigration of
newcomers, intermarriages, and the emigration of buraku residents further modified the
demographic composition of the district throughout the twentieth century. Currently, people
living, working or commuting to Higashi Sumida include Koreans, Chinese, South and
Southeast Asians (Filipinos, Thais, Malaysians, Bangladeshis), Africans, and Japanese.
Kinegawa community-based programmes include the
Sumida Kodomokai
children’s
organization,
6
school activities, exhibitions, visits to the surrounding leather factories, and
community events. The source of Kinegawa community activism is represented by the past
experiences and memories of the former Kinegawa Elementary School, which was opened in
the district in 1936 and has been operating as a D
ō
wa education institute since 2003. The
school was closed as a result of increasing discriminatory attacks against the ‘children of
Kinegawa’ by children living in the surrounding areas. In 2004, teachers and part of the
community decided to establish the Archives Kinegawa Museum in the former school’s
building in order to maintain the memory of the school and valorise the district. The
exhibition includes the history and educational experiences of Kinegawa and portrayals of the
everyday life in the district, including the display of leather tanning machinery, artefacts,
6
Sumida Kodomokai is one of the children organizations (i.e., part of the Kaih
ō
Kodomokai,
‘Children’s Liberation Society’) established by the BLL throughout the country to involve
communities in addressing buraku and other forms of discrimination. Children aged between 3 and 13
and their families gather on Saturdays in the BLL’s building located in a nearby district, and meet with
teachers and BLL supporters to cook, draw, play, craft objects, visit factories, and discuss various
topics (for example, daily life, discrimination).
