Organizer: Andrew Goble, University of Oregon Chair and Discussant: G. Cameron Hurst III, University of Pennsylvania
This back-to-back panel will present results of some current research in a new area (the first such panel was organized only in 1994), the social history of medicine in Japan. The papers in the first panel present different perspectives on the "medical body" in its social environment. Hitomi Tonomura's paper will explore how medical concerns shaped parturition techniques and how these acts acquired social meaning for the reproduction of political interests in the aristocratic society of Heian and Kamakura times. John Teramoto will take up the problems of provenance and transmission of the late Heian-early Kamakura Scrolls of Illnesses, and, inter alia, address social attitudes to the afflictions represented. Andrew Goble's paper will examine a range of patients and the medical care provided in a commoner population, with a view to offering new standpoints for assessing the problems of "community" and the nuances required to address issues relating to exclusion and care.
The papers in the second panel address issues of public health in the Tokugawa era. William Johnston will focus on the response in Tokugawa medical and other sources, taking up questions of both health and social morality, to one product of the "Columbian exchange," tobacco and the habit of smoking. Yokota Noriko will address the phenomenon of large-quantity venesection treatment for leprosy, and will argue that this treatment is, first, directly related to a redefinition of leprosy as an inherited rather than communicable disease, and, second, reflective of a broader Tokugawa social emphasis on "blood relations" (chi no tsunagari). Brett Walker will examine the impact of the Japanese disease pool on the Ainu population, the Tokugawa bakufu's smallpox vaccination programs, and the role of this enterprise in the broader program of defining the boundaries of the Japanese state.
The Gods, the Bad, and the Ugly: Viewing and Locating the Scrolls of Illnesses
John Teramoto, University of Kansas
The Yamai no soshi (Scroll of Illnesses) contains some of the earliest known Japanese depictions of disease and medical treatment. Another work, "Illnesses II," known only in copy form, strongly resembled the Yamai no soshi. While the relationship between the two works has yet to be determined, their subject matter provides valuable insights into the nature of illness and how it was regarded and treated in early Japan. Both featured graphic portrayals of people suffering from a variety of diseases and other physical and psychological ailments, although "Illnesses II" contains scenes of markedly more tragic and hideous afflictions. Often tinged with a biting, earthy humor, the visual and psychological realism that imbue the depictions reflect the artists' penetrating insights into human nature.
The character of the depictions, however, casts doubt on a clinical function for the works. Moreover, a notable feature of both works is the laughter evoked by the depictions either on the part of the viewer or in the onlookers who point with derision at the victims. The Yamai no soshi is currently regarded as depicting the theme of the "Six Realms of Existence" (rokudo), where human life is equated with pain and suffering. This is meaningful only under the broadest interpretation. However, the intrinsic relationship between illness and religion in Japan from ancient times prevents the ruling out of religious intent. For example, the ridiculing of victims is undoubtedly tied to the concept of illness as punishment for transgressions of Shinto or Buddhist law; i.e. karmic retribution.
This paper analyzes how these two works might relate and then proceeds to explain the character, function, and contextual significance of both works.
Making the Baby: Its Biological and Social Meanings in Gendered Aristocratic
Society
Hitomi Tonomura, University of Michigan
The binary paradigm that separates the spheres of nature and culture or those of private and public has implicitly posited women's reproductive function as a task that only fulfills biological and private rather than social, cultural, and public needs. Throughout history and in every culture, however, childbirth was and is more than a biological event. From prenatal through postpartum periods, what takes place in, through and around the womb represents complex values, social rules, and power relations, and is often an object of intense political and ceremonial interest. I will investigate how medical concerns supported women's biological acts and how these acts acquired social meanings for the reproduction of political interests in the aristocratic society of Heian and Kamakura times.
In this society that regarded women's fertility as a capital asset for determination of wealth, social status and political power, the prenatal, birthing, and postnatal processes were shaped by elaborate techniques that were both medical (in a modern sense of that term) and ritual. I will consult studies of parturition practices in various societies in order to gain a comparative understanding of methods that were employed by these aristocrats. The records of men (e.g. Gyokuyo and Kinhira koki) and women (e.g. Murasaki Shikibu nikki and Towazu gatari) who had a physical, ritual, or symbolic involvement with the actual birth-giving processes will reveal a gendered perception of what it meant to "umu" (give birth) and to "umaseru" (make a woman give birth) in this nonetheless collective process.
Medicine and Community in the Late Sixteenth Century: Yamashina Tokitsune's
Patients in Nakajima
Andrew Goble, University of Oregon
The afflictions and ailments that were part of life in medieval Japan are reasonably well known (if given less treatment than afflictions whose untreatable and incurable nature targeted them for special social interpretation). Likewise, the range of possible medicines and treatments known to the (especially educated) medical community is fairly clear from the many medieval medical texts (though these do not tell us what medicines were actually used or most readily available).
The diary of Yamashina Tokitsune (1543-1611, diary 1576-1606) is one of the few (and probably the best) sources that enables us to see the treatments and concerns of a commoner population over a continuous period of time. I will explore the topic by focusing on Tokitsune's diary for the period 1586-1591 when he was in exile from Kyoto in Nakajima in modern Osaka, and drew much of his income by practicing as a pharmacist/physician. His contacts with a range of occupational and social groups and his daily records of ailments and treatments provide us with not only with substantial unexplored material on medical and pharmaceutical matters, but also with a window into such issues as sense of community and family.
This paper is based on preliminary research for a larger project. However, in addition to looking at matters at the forefront of existential concerns (illness was common, freedom from it fairly unusual), I will suggest that discussions of and conceptualizations surrounding social attitudes of the period might profitably incorporate perspectives based on the experiences and conditions of daily life.