Performing the Buraku

People labelled as "Buraku-min" in Japan are usually described as the descendants of pre-modern occupational groups who were engaged in socially polluting tasks like leather work, meat-packing, street entertainment, and drum-making. "Performing the Buraku" explores representations of the "buraku" issue by community and local activism in contemporary Japan, with a special focus on performances and museum exhibitions. In particular, the book is the result of an ethnographic work conducted in Kinegawa and Naniwa leather towns, respectively in Tokyo and Osaka, and with the Monkey Dance Company performers. Flavia Cangià has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), with a specialization on the buraku minority in Japan. She is currently Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) where she conducts research within the project "Migrazioni" of the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities - Cultural Heritage (CNR)