【滋賀・末広町】被差別民が育てた肉食文化 近江八幡 [Suehirocho, Shiga] A meat-eating culture fostered by discriminated people

【滋賀・末広町】被差別民が育てた肉食文化 近江八幡 [Suehirocho, Shiga] A meat-eating culture fostered by discriminated people

Suehirocho (Shiga Prefecture) Suehirocho is primarily known for its meat industry, and is the birthplace of beef well known as Omi beef. There are slaughterhouses and many butchers, and the area expanded into the Keihan area early on, with ham and sausage processing also thriving. Its history is long (omitted), beginning at the end of the Edo period, but it became fully established in the Meiji period. Meat-eating culture underpins the modern Japanese diet. We visited a “meat village” that has been subject to discrimination. Hirata Station (Ohmi Railway) Hirata Station is just a short train ride from Omihachiman Station, and Suehirocho, the “meat village,” spreads out before your eyes. Entering Suehirocho, you’ll find a uniform residential area, with many vacant lots and abandoned buildings covered in ivy. What is striking is that, despite the simple scenery, there are residences with luxury cars such as Jaguars and Crowns parked there. It is said that the ancestors of Suehirocho (formerly Kubo Village) originally worked in the leather industry to make military equipment during the Kamakura period. At the time, they lived in Kongoji-cho, a castle town, but after Oda Nobunaga’s invasion of Omi, they moved to what is now Suehiro-cho. They pioneered the deserted town, and during the Edo period, they first got involved in rawhide production and then expanded into the meat industry. During the Edo period, when eating meat was banned, a meat-eating culture developed because the Hikone domain produced beef for medicinal purposes. The actual manufacturers of these products were discriminated against communities in the Hikone domain, Towards the end of the Edo period, Kubo Village purchased the rights to produce meat from Sonohata Village, located in the territory of the Hikone domain along the Happu Kaido road. Since the Meiji era, when the ban on eating beef and horse meat was lifted,
Suehirocho has become famous as the home of Omi beef. The foundations for this had already been laid at the end of the Edo period. When it was absorbed into Omihachiman city in 1958 (Showa 33), it took on the current name of “Suehirocho.” In Omihachiman, there are many jobs related to leather processing, such as shoemaking and drum making, as well as Suehirocho, which is famous for its meat industry. The leather processing industry, which grew out of the meat business that was the livelihood of the discriminated Burakumin, is still thriving in various parts of Omihachiman today. Until the 1950s, livestock traders purchased cattle and horses for farming at the meat processing site in Suehirocho and transported them to the slaughterhouse at the rendering plant. When the slaughterhouse master received the cattle and horses, he would hand them over to the butcher he employed to slaughter them. All the carcasses were sent to butchers in Kyoto, Osaka and nearby areas, and the innards were given to an organ dealer to be cleaned and distributed for consumption. Around 1965, livestock traders began to operate their own butcher shops, even slaughtering their own animals. Cows brought to the slaughterhouse are inspected by a veterinarian for any illnesses before being transported to the slaughterhouse. If the animal is physically healthy, they knock it down by hitting it on the head, slitting its throat, removing its head, skinning it, and transporting it away on rails. As agriculture changed, farm cattle disappeared, and beef cattle became in demand in the market. The meat industry in Suehirocho did not end there.
Many butcher shops in the Keihanshin area were originally from Suehirocho. The same goes for the kitchen staff who work there, and all of this can be considered part of the meat industry in Suehirocho. The word “Suehiro” is often seen on butcher shop signs. The meat-eating culture that Suehirocho fostered has been passed down to the present day.

食肉関連業の看板でよく見かける〝スエヒロ〟の文字。
その源流である被差別の視線に晒されてきた〝食肉の村〟を訪ねた。

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＜参考文献＞
『くらしとしごと : 近江八幡の部落史』(発行／近江八幡市部落史編纂委員会 )

The word “Suehiro” is often seen on signs for meat-related businesses.
We visited the origin of this word, a “meat village” that has long been subject to discrimination.

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