First, I went to the Human Rights Research Center that I found last week to meet with Honda-san and talk about the Burakumin issues in Japan. I learned quite a bit about the current state of affairs from him. This was the reason I went, because I already have a firm handle on the historical situation.
The basic picture is this: the minority burakumin have traditionally been silently segregated into certain communities, like the Osaka community of Imamiya. These groups have been provided with poorer infrastructure and the people in these communities are usually of low social status. The areas are called 'buraku', and the people burakumin. This I already knew. But I didn't understand why it had remained like this. There used to be institutionalized discrimination, but in modern times that has been abolished and made illegal. So why does it still exist?
Well, the areas they come from are still poorly served, and few people leave them. They often remain in the community because of discrimination from without. This discrimination is often perpetuated by parents or grandparents telling their young children that 'those are bad people'. This is the same way that racism is perpetuated in America even today. But here, people don't want to talk about the issue, the way that they have in America. There hasn't been a massive buraku movement until recently, certainly more recently than the Civil Rights Movement was. So the burakumin continue to face social separation and segregation that borders on self-segregation, but is not truly self motivated.
The problems are that their basic human rights are violated merely because they were born in a low-status community, which was in turn created by human rights violations. This is why it is so hard to break the cycle.
And the side effects are frightening. I recently heard of a happening in India caused by similar class-based discrimination in which a young girl was murdered...by police. The story is graphic and not intended for children (there are details other than the murder that you can probably guess) so I will not provide a link here, because I may have younger readers. Needless to say, this has to stop. That's why the study of issues like this is so important. That's why I came to talk to Honda-san.
At the conclusion of our talk, he gave me information about an online newsletter--in english--that his center puts out, and sometimes talks about burakumin issues. I plan to keep reading it.
I want to apologize for the heavy nature of the above. As a change of pace, let's talk about today's title.
Yes, I think Japan hates mondays, more so than most people. This is half a joke. Nevertheless, where most businesses in America have Sunday as a day off or day with reduced hours (a holdover from the strong Christian prohibition against work on sundays that was popular in early America) in Japan, most museums, zoos, and temples are closed on Mondays.
That was, alas, what happened at parts of the temple I visited today. Luckily, however, the primary complex and fancy gardens were both kept open all week.
The temple, Shitennoji, is said to be the oldest temple in Japan, founded by Prince Shotoku in 593 AD. Shitennoji is a temple in honor of the Shitenno, or four heavenly kings. Tomorrow, the 21st, there will be a massive flea market all across the complex. In fact, today you can see some of the booths in one of my pictures. The structure itself is typical of Buddhist structures. It has a 5 story pagoda and a grand hall and four gates in the cardinal directions. It also has a garden which I assume also doubles as a tea garden. I took a stroll in the garden filled with waterfalls and trimmed trees and fancy landscaping (like stone bridges).
Oh! I almost forgot about the turtles!
The turtles.
This was taken in front of one of the grand halls. They had a bridge separating two ponds filled with turtles. It seems like Buddhist things are always a home to wildlife. If you remember, there was a spot near a temple on the Philosopher's walk in Kyoto that had five or six stray cats. Anyway, I liked the turtles, so I will share them with you. I also believe in at least one picture per blog entry to give myself to come up with an amusing caption.
Cory
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