I visited a second Buraku (M_ Buraku) while I was in Osaka, and when I was there I visited this meat processing centre. Burakumin have traditionally been the people who have worked with meat due it its Buddhist association with impurity and spiritual defilement. I went there with a person from the local BLL and a group of middle-school children from a nearby city (H_ city). The local BLL do study tours with the children in order to show them where their meat comes from, and to remove any discriminatory misconceptions that they have with regard to the connection between Burakumin and meat.
It is quite shocking for the children to see the meat centre, as it was for me, but it is a good experience (see the M_Buraku interview), because they discover that it is a job like any other, done by normal people in normal working conditions. Afterwards they sit down at the local BLL and discuss the experience and talk about it with the local BLL representative. It is very educational and a good experience.
If you notice the trees on the left behind the wall... |
