Lecture reading 8 - The Creation of the Edo Outcaste Order Flashcards
What played a large role in determining who was targeted for discrimination?
Taboos on disease, the taking of life, and handling the dead.
What does the word ‘hinin’ mean and what type of people often constituted this group?
Meaning: ‘nonhuman’. Included criminals, physically disabled, blind, lepers, vagrants, street performers, butchers, executioners.
What was the most common hinin occuption and hinin trait?
Occupation: begging.
Trait: poverty.
Who were ‘kararamono’/’kawara no mono’?
‘Riverbed people’. Included people in butchering and leather production, but also those who had nothing to do with death such as dyers, garden builders, makers of straw sandals, etc.
What does the word ‘eta’ mean?
‘Much pollution’. Escalating amount of discrimination.
When did outcastes begin to be registered separately from commoners?
During the seventeenth century.
Who were the ‘kawata’?
Leather artisans.
What set apart the kawata from the rest of the commoners?
They were in demand by military houses for making military gear, and so had monopoly rights and privileges and sometimes were exempt from paying taxes.
Who was the head of the eta in the Kanto region?
Danzaemon.
Which privileges did Danzaemon have? (five points)
- Had monopoly rights over leather production
- Power and authority over all kawata/eta in Kanto.
- Extracted taxes and labour from those he oversaw.
- Received large residence and large amounts of rice from bakufu.
- Granted daimyo-like privileges including wearing certain clothing and swords.
Who were the four hinin bosses in the Tokugawa period? Of these, who was the ‘head of the hinin’?
Kuruma Zenshichi, Matsuemon, Fukagawa Zenzaburou, and Yoyogi no Kyubee. Zenshichi head of hinin.
Who controlled Zenshichi?
Danzaemon.
Who were the hinin eventually controlled by?
The head of the eta.
How were hinin’s statuses rendered obvious?
Laws were passed dictating their outward appearance, including what kind of clothes they could wear and which hairstyle they could have. They were also required to wear a licence tag.
What did hinin duties include?
Anything to do with ‘pollution’. Skinning and disposing of dead animals, assisting eta in executions, transporting prisoners. Also included things like repairing sandals and street performing.
