‖ hinin
(ˈhinin)
[Jap.]
A member of an outcast group in Japan. Also collect. and attrib. Cf. Eta3.
| 1884 tr. J. J. Rein's Japan ii. i. 329 Geshas (female dancers and singers) and Jôrôs (prostitutes)..were despised, and considered..socially below the level of the Hìnìn. 1891 A. M. Bacon Jap. Girls & Women ix. 228 The éta and hinin—outcasts who lived by begging, slaughtering animals, caring for dead bodies, tanning skins, and other employments which rendered them unclean. 1904 L. Hearn Japan: Attempt at Interpretation vi. 110 The banished man was most often doomed to become a hinin—one of that wretched class of wandering pariahs who were officially termed ‘not-men’. 1970 J. W. Hall Japan x. 179 Tokugawa society..was conceived of..as falling into the following categories: the kuge, the samurai (including daimyo), priests, peasants, urban residents, and pariah (hinin and eta). |