Tales of the Charcoal-Burner Millionaire and Other Essays

A charcoal burner discovers gold, acquires wealth, and gains an illustrious pedigree. Why do versions of this story appear across Japan? Historian Kita Sadakichi traces the legend through mountain occupations, imagined ancestry, and the desire for higher social standing.

Four further essays turn to the history of communities subjected to hereditary discrimination. Records of livestock disposal reveal valuable rights traded by deed and mortgage. Temple accounts show religious devotion alongside exclusion within institutions that professed equality.

Kita also challenges collective labels that confuse community origins with poverty, and asks how restricted residence, growing populations, competition, and the loss of privileges produced crowded housing and economic hardship. His arguments combine a determined criticism of discrimination with paternalistic assumptions and an ideal of assimilation.