Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/06/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 08:08 PM 6/2/2005, Karen Nakamura wrote: >At 6:09 PM -0700 05.6.2, Richard wrote: >>Strong images and commentaries. Thank you for sharing. >> >>Speaking of the rarely mentioned subjects, has anyone done any >>photojournalistic work on either the Emishi, or the Untouchables in >>Japan? Could make a very strong piece of work... > >Thanks for the kind words! > ><professor mode on> >Hmmm... I think you're confusing several groups: Thanks. I actually do know the Emishi are different from the Untouchables. I didn't know there are two untouchable classes though. The confusion came in my English structure. Should the comma be there or not? Emishi, or (also) the Untouchables or Emishi or (also) the Untouchables ? Now you did explain further on the Eta. If I understand correctly, there were/are the people that only do the "unclean" jobs (grave digging etc.), similar to the lowest caste of the Indian system, is it not? Thanks!! >Emishi (also known as the ezo) are the aboriginal inhabitants of Northern >Japan. They were colonized/killed by the Yamato people of southern Japan >in the 1800s. They are the remote village people who appear in the >beginning of the movie Princess Mononoke. Ashitaka, the young hero, is one >of them. > >There were two untouchable classes in feudal Japan: the eta and the >Burakumin (although they are often glossed as the same). They were >"liberated" from the caste structure with the Meiji Restoration in late >nineteenth century Japan, although in reality discrimination still >happens. In my Minorities and Sexualities in Modern Japan class, I >analogize Burakumin as operating similarly to race in the USA but without >any difference in skin color or cultural identifiers marking it. Like >race in the United States, if you are of former burakumin lineage, you >encounter discrimination in education, quality of living, residence, >marriage, employment, and social advancement but with the complication >that you are ethnically Japanese and no one can tell you are former >Burakumin unless they look at your family records. Quite complicated and >it usually gets the students in knots. > >In any case, the former Burakumin are quite sensitive about the issue and >since they insist they are ethnically Japanese, there isn't much to >photograph, especially now that most of the neighborhoods that used to be >segregated buraku-areas are improved. There are a couple of excellent >1960s and 1970s photoessays in the University of Michigan east asia >library system. I browsed through them last time I was there, >unfortunately I did not jot down their names. ><professor mode off> > > >Karen > > > >-- >Karen Nakamura >http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/ >http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/ > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > // richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please use richard at imagecraft.com)