Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
53
‘old techniques of production that are preserved for future generations’; a special emphasis is
thus put on the connections with the ‘outside’ and on the economic value and the historical
relevance of the industrial area. On a few occasions, the tradition of leather tanning in
Kinegawa was expressly described in term of ‘roots’ and ‘Japanese culture’.
Urban, educational initiatives and the exhibition language in Kinegawa appropriate
commonplace spatial features associated with the ‘buraku’ and re-frame these within a wider
dimension that expands to national boundaries. Although at first localized in the
here-and-
now
of the district, these practices transcend specificity and local borders, by employing an
assimilating
strategy (Karp 1990), a strategy that highlights similarity (based on social,
economic and cultural principles) rather than difference. However, they pride the community
on the industry in the town and its history by crossing local ethnic and social boundaries, and
tell about experiences of a vanishing locality of the area (with memories of Kinegawa in the
past) by reconstructing community relationships in its present.
Naniwa Leather Town
Naniwa ward (formerly Watanabe village) is an important industrial area and leather trade
centre in Osaka engaged in the tanning and secondary leather-work, in particular
taiko
drum
manufacturing. Historical outcast groups were gradually moved to the limits of the city and
relocated in Naniwa. The district has been at the centre of activism by the BLL since the late
1960s, and is home to the Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute. Currently,
Naniwa is an officially designated ‘assimilation area’, where a variety of individuals live,
especially buraku people and Korean communities.
The ‘Osaka Naniwa Human Rights Respect Town Making’
is a project of community
development implemented in the area in 2002 by a committee including the Osaka Municipal
Government, Japan Rail East, the Osaka Taiko Industrial Association, the Naniwa branch of
the BLL and various experts. The area, composed of thematic zones on human rights culture
and taiko tradition, runs from the Ashiharabashi railway station to Liberty Osaka museum,
including information boards and exhibitions. The programme aims at turning Naniwa into
the ‘hometown of drums’ (
taiko no furusato)
through a twofold strategy, which includes two
main projects: the Museum of Human Rights
Liberty Osaka
, and the
Road of Human Rights
and Taiko
. The participation of the community, as well as other individuals from other areas
of the city and tourists, is particularly strengthened in this context through a variety of
initiatives, including cultural programmes, posters, promotional brochures, seminars,
