Be

• Japanese: 部 (be)

Be were lineages of craftsmen and other skilled workers, such as potters or scribes, attached to uji (elite clans) in the Yamato period. These families of skilled workers were originally chiefly immigrants from the Korean peninsula, and the word be is derived from a Korean term; indigenous ("Japanese") artisans soon came to be incorporated into be as well. Some of these developed into powerful houses of their own in later periods.

References

• Albert M. Craig, The Heritage of Japanese Civilization, Second Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 7.