【Date】
May 26 (Thu), 2:00-4:00 p.m.

【Venue】
Main Conference Room (3rd Floor), Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo

【Speaker】
YAMAMOTO Eiko (The deputy head of the Kyoto 6th Branch, Kyoto Prefectural Federation, Buraku Liberation League)

【Title】
‘Fu’ (pawn, steps, walk): Claiming literacy, Fighting against Buraku discrimination

【Commentator】
Aya Ikegame (Associate Professor, IASA, The University of Tokyo)

【Language】Japanese

【Abstract】

Mrs YAMAMOTO Eiko was born to a poor family in a small Buraku settlement in Kyoto. Having been herself deprived of the opportunity to undergo formal education as a child, she organised a literacy class in her own home. Her passion for learning did not stop there. Later in life she attended an evening junior high school, a part-time high school, and entered a university at the age of sixty-nine. Her life story coincided with the rise of the Buraku liberation movement in post-war Kyoto. Her recent book Fu (pawn, steps, walk): Claiming literacy, Fighting against Buraku discrimination (Kaiho Shuppan Sha, 2012) tells the life story of an ordinary activist (she calls herself a ‘pawn’), hidden behind the actions of celebrated public ideologues. It is also a testimony to how ‘the personal is political’, revealing how she engaged with the liberation movement in her everyday life.
We invite Mrs YAMAMOTO Eiko and others to join us in a discussion on discrimination, Buraku culture, and possible future social liberation in Japan.