전근대 일본 사회의 ‘장해자’ 인식에 관한 고찰 - ‘장해자’의 표상과 ‘극복’ ‘승화’를 중심으로-

Abstract

In Japanese society, people with disabilities were socially vulnerable people who were excluded from the community by discrimination and prejudice regardless of age or region. In other words, Sabarton was defined as a modern academic term. In this article, Hiruko, a myth covered by this article, was also found to have been abandoned or isolated in the tales of Gyoki in the Nara period, as evidenced by the Cicada Maru tradition. Moreover, children born with disabilities were sometimes killed by midwives. In fact, if you look only at the Edo period, you can see cases of persecution that were abandoned, killed, or treated as inhuman through numerous documents. On the other hand, disabled people were revered as guardians who brought good fortune into their homes, or as lucky children and treasures who brought money directly by labor. Hiruko, who was abandoned because she was disabled, has been revived as the god of commerce and the god of the sea, and is deeply believed in today’s Japanese society.It can be said that it is the overcoming of obstacles and sublimation. This article examines the representations and perceptions of disabled people who had no choice but to live as the so-called “unspeakable” socially vulnerable in pre-modern Japanese society, and examines whether they can overcome or sublimate obstacles.