This talk reconsiders discrimination and the public sphere by tracing historical changes in the treatment of outcasts at and around Kiyomizu temple (清水寺). Examination of this sacred site enables analysis of lived experiences revealing the entanglements of the sacred and impure. Focusing on the themes of separation and reunion, I begin in the modern period by exploring national (kokumin国民) and non-national people (hikokuminn 非国民). Then, looking back, I continue the exploration of these themes in the Edo period with common people and impure people (eta 穢多); the medieval period and humans and non-humans (hinin 非人); and finally, to the ancient period and ordinary people and slaves (nuhi奴婢). These considerations problematize the Western conceptions of human rights and democracy in order to reassess the emergent social order and coexisting with the other “without discrimination.”
Junichi Isomae is a Professor of Religious Studies at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken). He received his Ph.D in religious studies from Tokyo University. Previously, he has been a visiting professor and research fellow at Tübingen University, the University of Zurich, Ruhr University Bochum, SOAS, and Harvard University.