The were a population of
nomadic
Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...
mountain people
Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains.
This includes all rugged land above and all land (including plateaus) above elevation.
The climate is generally harsh, with s ...
who are believed to have once existed in
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
Summary
The ''Sanka'' had no permanent settlements, but lived in bands of wandering
hunter-gatherers
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially w ...
. They were known to sometimes visit villages to trade.
It is unknown when and where the Sanka originated. 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.
Around the same time, 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
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
conception of
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...
".
[
]
See also
* Cave dweller
A cave dweller, or troglodyte, is a human who inhabits a cave or the area beneath the overhanging rocks of a cliff.
Prehistory
Some Prehistory, prehistoric humans were cave dwellers, but most were not (''see'' ''Homo'' and Human evolution). ...
* Matagi
The are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, most famously today in the Ani area in Akita Prefecture, which is known for the Akita dogs. Afterwards, they spread to the Shirakami-Sanchi forest between Akita and ...
* ''Eta
Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...
''
* '
Bibliography
*
References
{{Authority control
Society of Japan
Social history of Japan
Ethnic groups in Japan
Japanese caste system