Outcasts and marginals in medieval Japanpeople in the premodern world, we should recognize the meanings that such history holds for
many Japanese people today.
Certain factors—occupational, spatial, behavioral, and circumstantial—are central to any
attempt to piece together that history. Some occupations, although necessary to the functioning
of society at large and supported by those of highest status, were regarded as defiling. Certain
spaces defiled people who inhabited them, or were defiled by their inhabitants, then becoming
sources of defilement for others who came to live there. Behavior—crime, begging, itinerancy,
violating sexual norms—could push one over the border, but standards were slippery and sanc-
tions unevenly applied. Perhaps the most reliable factor was one that was simply circumstantial:
contracting a disfiguring disease such as leprosy, in an era when such illness was often seen as
karmic punishment. A common thread linking these factors is the concept of ritual pollution,
which in itself has been the subject of much debate.
Outcast groups had different names and somewhat different functions and relationships with
the larger society. Some of these names emerged late in the Heian period (794–1185) but all those
mentioned below were in use by the early medieval (Kamakura) era (1185–1333). The term hinin,
sometimes used for specific groups and sometimes for outcasts in general, literally means non-
human. Hinin who commonly performed cleansing and purification work, especially in connec-
tion with burials and cremations, were also known as kiyome (purifiers), and beggars and lepers
were also referred to as hinin. The word has a double meaning: originally a Buddhist term
meaning a fearsome deity, it was sometimes used by monks and recluses to signify their with-
drawal from society or to signify their ability to overcome defilement through Buddhist means.^2
A more common explanation is that hinin were not juridical persons, and did not have the same
rights (or obligations) as others in society.
Another broad category of outcasts is kawaramono (riverbank dwellers, sometimes also called
kawarabito). They lived in undesirable locations along rivers, where burials, cremations, and
executions were carried out—for example, the banks of the Kamo river in the capital at Kyoto.
Kawaramono were occasionally referred to as eta, a term that means “much pollution” and was
regularly used for outcasts in the Edo period. A common kawaramono occupation was the disposal
of horse and oxen carcasses—a job that gave them access to animal hides and the opportunity to
make and sell leather goods such as sandals. Yet another term is sanjo, literally “scattered places,”
which refers to areas where marginalized people lived or to the people themselves. Inujinin served
shrines in various capacities, from cleansing to policing. Their marginalized social status is sug-
gested by the prefix inu (dog) to the term jinin, a general title for shrine functionaries. Finally,
shōmonji refers to people with magico- religious and performance skills, who were nonetheless
seen as beggars by late medieval times. There is considerable overlap and confusion among these
terms, and scholars by no means agree on how to differentiate them.
Most references to outcasts in the documentary record are brief, scattered, and sometimes
cryptic, but scholars have used them to examine the occupations, social status, and living con-
ditions of such people, and to make assumptions about how and by whom they were controlled.
Among the sources are documents from powerful elites—court and shogunal documents,
courtier diaries, and the records of important temples and shrines. Since we hardly ever hear the
voices of outcasts themselves, scholars have concentrated on the ways that such people were
regarded and treated by society.
The earliest known reference to kawarabito (thought to be the same as kawaramono) appears in
an entry dated 1016 in the courtier journal Sakeiki, which makes it clear that the kawarabito spe-
cialized in disposing of animal corpses.^3 As the earliest known reference to a prominent group of
hinin who lived on Kiyomizuzaka on the outskirts of the capital of Kyoto (Heian- kyō), Ōyama
Kyōhei cites an entry of 1031 in the courtier diary Shōyūki, that states that “people at the bottom