Thank you for sharing! Seems an interesting book!

Just last night, however, a few hours before checking TSUKUBLOG, I got a call from a friend (a Japanese school teacher) who had paid a visit to a local hospital to check up on one of her students who had been severely beaten. She said he was doing fine and that he was proud to have gotten a nice private room because his father was the head of the Dowakai (I guess in English we would say the Burakumin Association). The fight in which the boy was injured had nothing to do with the dowa problem, but in most cases the parents might have made a big stink or sued the other boy’s family. The Dowa Kaicho, however, kept a very cool head it seems, and held serious discussions with BOTH boys and their families making everyone promise to solve their problems peacefully in the future. The hospital staff all gathered to make respectful greetings when the Kaicho left the building.

The Ibaraki schools have long been making active efforts to be sensitive to the feelings of the descendants of the former outcasts. In fact, this Dowakai seems to have quite a lot of influence in Tsukuba public schools, and teachers and principals always make sure to make formal greetings to its leaders, and the group seems to do a lot for the schools, too. I can relate several interesting anecdotes, so if anyone is interested please let me know. The teacher also said she could arrange for an interview with the Kaicho himself.

In regard to the use of the word BURAKU, there is a huge difference in nuance and usage between Kansai and eastern, especially northeastern Japan. here in Tsukuba City the word BURAKU is commonly used, in particular by older people, to refer to their village or hamlet within the town. I hear the word used all the time. When Kansai people living in Tsukuba hear that word used their faces usually change color in embarrassment,as in their part of Japan it is a VERY OFFENSIVE TERM. They would use the words SHURAKU, or MURA.

What strange creatures we humans are! Why do so many of us need to have someone or some group to put down. It’s good to know that there are people like Tim trying to make the world a better, more caring place. I hope he continues to share with us his insights into a JAPAN that most of us are unaware of.

Something else I just remembered: a friend from Hokkaido told me that a derogatory word used for the DOWA was yotsu, or four, as in four-legged beasts. When they wanted to communicate that someone was a yotsu silently they would flash four fingers, letting their friends know that the person being referred to was an outcast.