Sanka (ethnic group)

The Sanka (サンカ) were a population of nomadic mountain people who are believed to have once existed in Japan.

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Summary

The Sanka had no permanent settlements, but lived in bands of wandering hunter-gatherers. They were known to sometimes visit villages to trade.^[1] It is unknown when and where the Sanka originated. Kita Sadakichi [ja] suggested that they were the descendants of farmers or outcastes who fled into the mountains during long period of civil war in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Early research on the Sanka was conducted by Yanagita Kunio in the 1910s.^[2]^[3]^[4] Around the same time, Takano Yasaburō (鷹野弥三郎) described the Sanka as being entirely criminal in character and a threat to national security. Yanagita criticized Takano's theory, saying that the proclivity for thievery associated with the Sanka came from "a difference in [their] conception of property".^[3]

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Bibliography

後藤 Gotō, 興善 Kōzen (1989). 又鬼と山窩 Matagi and Sanka. Japan: 批評社 Hihyōsha. ISBN 4826502893.

Sanka (ethnic group)

Summary

See also

Bibliography

References

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