- Convenor:
-
Nobuharu Takano
(Kyushu University Archives)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussants:
-
Satoko Koyama
(Nishogakusha University)
David Dominik CHWILA (Kyushu University Archives)
senjuro machi
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- History
Short Abstract
This panel will examine, from a historical perspective, how children with disabilities were perceived and treated in pre-modern Japan over time. Through this examination, we will also consider issues surrounding disability in contemporary Japanese society.
Long Abstract
The panel will discuss perceptions of children with disabilities in pre-modern Japan.
People with disabilities have always existed, regardless of era or region. For a long time in Japan, the National Eugenics Law (1940-1948) and the Eugenic Protection Law (1948-1996) fostered views that denied human rights and dignity to people with disabilities. Subsequently, self-advocacy and public support gained momentum, leading to the Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities in 2016. This law recognized individuals with disabilities’ right to lead social lives with equal human rights and fundamental freedoms. However, in contemporary Japanese society, negative attitudes persist, as evidenced by incidents involving the killing or injuring of people with disabilities. Why do such negative attitudes arise in the first place? To examine contemporary societal issues, it is necessary to trace back through history and analyze perceptions of people with disabilities in Japan. Despite this need, research on the history of people with disabilities in Japan lags significantly behind disability history studies in Europe and America.
This panel will focus specifically on children with disabilities within the broader category of people with disabilities. Based on historical sources, we will discuss how they were perceived and treated within society in pre-modern times. Historical records contain numerous descriptions of children with impaired vision, hearing, or limbs; children born with physical deformities; children lacking intellectual capacity. Depending on the era, the birth of such children was sometimes regarded as supernatural, viewed as a consequence of karmic retribution from previous lives, or deemed morally deficient within the context of Confucian ideology. Conversely, children with disabilities were also believed to possess special abilities not found in able-bodied individuals.
How did people in pre-modern Japan interact with and relate to children with disabilities? We will trace the historical evolution of perceptions towards children with disabilities in pre-modern Japan. Furthermore, we aim to clarify the historical context within which these perceptions changed.
Hoping this will contribute to understanding contemporary issues surrounding people with disabilities in modern society, this panel seeks to shed light on children with disabilities in pre-modern times through pre-modern historical sources.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) | 本パネルでは、前近代の日本における障害児に対する認識について、歴史学の視点から論じる。 障がい者は、時代、地域を問わず、どこにでもいる。ながらく日本では、国民優生法（1940～1948年）と優生保護法（1948～1996年）によって、障がい者の人権と尊厳が否定的に見られてきた。その後、当事者と支援者の主体性が強まり、2016年に障がい者差別解消法が制定された。これによって、障がい者は、合理的配慮により、等しく人権と基本的自由をもって社会的な生活を営む権利が認められた。しかし、現代日本社会では、障がい者の殺傷事件が起こるなど、障がい者を否定する考えが依然として残っている。そもそも、なぜ障がい者を否定する考えは生まれるのだろうか。現代社会の問題を検討する上で、日本における障害者観に関して歴史をさかのぼり詳細に分析していく必要がある。それにもかかわらず、日本では障害者の歴史に関する研究は、欧米の障がい者史研究に、大きく後れをとっている。 本パネルでは、障がい者の中でも、障害児に焦点を当て、前近代社会で彼らがどのように認識され、社会のなかでいかに扱われてきたのか、歴史史料にもとづき、具体的に論じていきたい。前近代の史料には、目や耳、手足が不自由な子ども、生まれつきの奇形の子ども、知に欠ける子どもなどに関する記述を多く確認することができる。これらの子どもの誕生は、時代によっては、怪異であるとされたり、仏教思想の影響のもとに前世の業によるものだと考えられたり、儒教思想を背景に判断力がないなどとされてきた。その一方で、障害児は、健常者にはない特殊な能力もあると考えられていた。 前近代の日本人は、現代いうところの障害児とどのように向き合い、関わってきたのだろうか。本パネルでは、個々の発表をもとに、前近代の障害児に対する認識に関する変遷を通時的に追っていく。さらに、どのような歴史的背景のもとにそれらは変遷したのかということについても、障害と疾病の境界線も含め、明らかにしていきたい。 以上のように、本パネルでは、前近代の歴史史料を丹念に分析し、前近代の障害児について検討する。その上で、現代社会における障がい者をめぐる諸問題の検討の一助としたいと考える。 |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This presentation will elucidate how deformed children and creatures were perceived and treated in medieval Japan. It will also discuss the reasons for this perception, based on historical sources.
Paper long abstract
This presentation elucidates how deformed children and creatures were perceived and treated in medieval Japan. Medieval historical records contain accounts of children born with severe deformities, such as two heads or four hands. From a Buddhist perspective, the birth of deformed children was understood as the result of the karma of the parents or the child itself from a previous life. For instance, Buddhist story collections contain numerous such narratives. Conversely, historical texts and aristocratic diaries, drawing upon Chinese historical writings, record the perception of such births as supernatural phenomena. Thus, within medieval society, the dual interpretations—as karmic retribution and as supernatural occurrences—coexisted without contradiction. Moreover, while deformed children were perceived as inauspicious, they were also believed to possess special abilities unavailable to healthy individuals. For instance, tales recounted children running immediately after birth, becoming exceptionally wise and accomplished nuns, or possessing extraordinary strength.
Deformed infants at birth, or deformed fish and birds discovered, were often discarded as unlucky omens. This was because discarding them was believed to offer some measure of protection against misfortune. However, accounts also exist of dissecting the bodies of deformed infants or consuming deformed fish and birds. The treatment of deformed children, fish, and birds underwent changes from the early to the late Middle Ages. This presentation will also address these shifts.Why did medieval people cut up the bodies of deformed children and eat deformed fish and birds? Drawing on historical texts, noble diaries, and folktales, I shall discuss the reasons for this, including their relationship to medicine and pharmacology.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 本発表では、日本の中世において、奇形児や奇形の生き物がどのように認識され、いかに扱われたのかを明らかにする。奇形児の誕生の理由は、親や本人の前世の業によるものだと認識された一方、怪異としても認識された。また、奇形児は、不吉なものとして認識されつつも、健常者には持ち得ない特別な能力を持つとも考えられた。 中世の史料には、奇形児の死体を切り取ったとする記述や、奇形の魚や鳥を食べたとする記述も確認できる。奇形児や奇形の魚、鳥などに対する扱いは、中世前期から後期にかけて変化していく。奇形児の死体を切り取り、奇形の魚や鳥を食べた理由について、医療や薬との関係を含めて論じていくことにする。 |
Paper short abstract
Disability is closely connected to modern concepts of rights, and while medicine and disability may seem closely related yet distant from one another, this essay attempts an approach to premodern disability from a medical perspective.
Paper long abstract
Successive Chinese medical texts accumulated a vast body of empirical knowledge based on the disease classifications of classical medical theory. At the same time, unusual treatments and new therapies for rare or newly recognized diseases were continually added, and a certain degree of specialization also progressed. In early modern Japan as well, interest in specialization and in rare diseases and new treatments remained consistently high. Many medical texts focusing on specific fields or particular diseases came to be produced, and among books that extracted unusual diseases from Chinese medical literature were works that occupied a boundary between medical writing and tales of the strange or uncanny. Hanaoka Seishū, the surgeon known for performing breast cancer surgery under general anesthesia, produced illustrated works depicting rare surgical diseases and their treatments as objects of surgical and bandaging techniques. These works include cases that can be interpreted as treatments for people with disabilities.
With regard to children with disabilities, bōchūsho (sexual cultivation manuals) explained taboos intended to prevent the birth of weak children, while pediatric medical texts discussed a variety of neonatal diseases and their treatments. Many of these descriptions, however, lack scientific grounding when viewed from a modern perspective. Nevertheless, it should be noted that scientific viewpoints were not entirely absent: for example, the eleventh shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, who had many children die young, attempted to have clinical experiments in pediatric medicine conducted at the Igakkan (the shogunate’s medical academy).
Meanwhile, it is well known that many medical practitioners in early modern Japan were blind acupuncturists or massage therapists. Sugiyama Waichi in the seventeenth century and Ashihara Kengyō in the nineteenth century became famous for treating Tokugawa shoguns, and the Sugiyama-style tube-needle acupuncture technique, originating with Sugiyama Waichi, remains widely practiced to this day.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 障害者は近代以降の権利の考え方と関係が深く、医療と障害者は近くて遠い関係にあるが、医療から前近代の障害者に対してアプローチしてみる。 歴代の中国医書には医学古典の疾病分類を基本とした多くの経験知が蓄積されているが、めずらしい疾患・新しい疾患に対するめずらしい治療法・新しい治療法も次々に加えられていき、ある程度の専門分化も進んだ。 近世日本でも専門分化やめずらしい疾患や新しい治療に対する関心は一貫して高かった。専門領域や特定疾患に特化した医書も多く作られるようになっていったが、中国医書の中からめずらしい疾病を拾い出した書籍の中には、医書と怪談の境界に位置するような書籍も見られる。全身麻酔による乳癌手術で知られる外科医華岡青洲は、外科手術や包帯術の対象としてめずらしい外科的疾患とその治療を図解した書籍を作っている。これらの中には障害者への治療とみることが可能な事例も含まれる。 障害児に関連しては、房中書には虚弱児が生まれることを避けるための禁忌が説かれ、小児科医書のなかでは新生児のさまざまな疾患と治療法が説かれているが、今日からみて科学的根拠に乏しい記述が多い。だが、11代将軍家斉は早世する子女が多いことから、医学館において小児医療の臨床実験を行わせようとした例など、科学的な視点がなかったわけではないことも言い添えたい。 一方、近世日本の医療者として盲人の鍼灸師や按摩師が多かったことも周知の通りであり、17世紀の杉山和一や19世紀の芦原検校は徳川将軍に施療したことで有名であり、杉山和一を起源とする杉山流管鍼術は現在まで広く普及している。 |
Paper short abstract
In early modern Japan, health and morality gained prominence and became subjects of study, underpinned by Confucianism, Buddhism, and other traditions. This presentation examines two related cases, exploring how learning about these concepts by children and others generates awareness of disability.
Paper long abstract
In Early Modern Japan, influenced by East Asian thought, the importance of health and morality began to be explained in simple terms as subjects the common people should learn. Taking up typical examples, this presentation examines the circumstances under which perceptions of disability were shaped through the lens of ‘learning’ targeting also children.
Kaibara Ekken (貝原益軒), who studied Confucianism and medicine, taught that health was vital to repay the debt owed to the gods of heaven and earth and one's parents who gave birth to us. For if severe illness damaged one's body and mind, one could no longer perform the labor necessary to sustain life. This would amount to disability. The very foundation of life built by ancestors and parents would be threatened, ultimately amounting to neglecting the gods of heaven and earth. Therefore, Kaibara Ekken clearly presented various techniques for maintaining health, based on traditional Chinese methods of health preservation.
Kyoto merchant Ishida Baigan (石田梅岩) and his disciples spread moral teachings about the mindset necessary for living. Their writings drew upon East Asian philosophies like Confucianism and Buddhism. A distinctive feature was their explanation of the state of mind and body in relation to Tokugawa Japan's social order. They posited a master-servant relationship in which the mind directs the bodily organs. If the master, the mind, failed to give precise instructions, his servants, the organs, would become wayward, leading to paralysis of motor and sensory functions, resulting in disability. Morality was linked to the body; children born with physical abnormalities were said to be the result of their parents being ‘bad hearted’.
Lifestyles and lessons rooted in the intellectual traditions that developed across East Asia were considered essential to learn from very childhood onwards, and individuals lacking sufficient learning ability were viewed as problematic. This corresponds to intellectual disability. In Confucianism, ‘knowledge’ (知 chi) refers to the ability to discern good from evil. However, in Early Modern Japan, a Western-style conception of ‘knowledge’ as ‘the ability to comprehend things’ also began to emerge within education and discipline.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 近世日本民衆の学びと障害認識の生成 近世日本では、東アジアの思想も背景として、健康と道徳が大事との考え方が、庶民層が学ぶべきこととして平易に語りはじめられる。本発表では、その典型的な事例を取り上げ、子どもも対象とされる学びを通して、障害認識が生成される状況を考える。 儒学と医学を修めた貝原益軒は、自分を生み出した天地の神や父母からうけている恩に報いるために、健康は大事と教える。なぜなら、重い病気により心身が傷つけば、生活を営むための労働ができなくなる。これは障害に相当しよう。先祖や父母が築いてきた生活基盤の存続が危ぶまれ、結局、天地の神を蔑ろにすることにもなる。そのため貝原益軒は健康を保つための様々な技法を、中国の伝統的な養生の方法を基に、平易に示した。 京都の商人である石田梅岩や門弟は、生きるための心の持ち方を説く道徳を広めた。著作類は、儒学・仏教など東アジアの思想も参照し書かれた。特徴的なことは、心身のあり方を近世日本の社会秩序と関係づけて説いたことだ。心が身体器官を監督する主従関係を想定し、主人である心が的確な指示を出さないと、従者の器官はわがままとなり、運動機能や感覚機能が麻痺して障害になるとした。道徳と体が関連付けられ、身体異常の子は、親に悪い心があるために生まれるともされた。 東アジアに展開した思想群を背景とする生活の仕方や教訓は、子どもの頃から学ぶべきとされ、十分な学習能力がない人も問題視される。知的障害に相当する。儒学でいう知は、善悪の判断力をさす。しかし近世日本では、知を物事の理解力と考える西洋的な見方も、教育・しつけにおいて、自生し始めていたといえよう。 |
Paper short abstract
In Edo-period Japan, children born with some form of ‘disability’ or ‘disfigurement’ were often put to death or abandoned by their parents. This presentation aims to show that there were also voices against these practices, trying to convince parents to value these children's lives and raise them.
Paper long abstract
Throughout the Edo-period, infanticide (kogoroshi) as well as abandoning children (sutego) unwanted by their parents were widespread practices among the common people. Historical sources reveal, this was particularly the case when it came to children born with clearly visible impairments or anomalies (birth defects). Some were sold by their parents (miuri) to travelling sideshows (misemono goya), where there were exhibited as ‘human oddities’. Sometimes, parents decided to hide their children from public view in fear of people's reactions, deeming them to a life in house-confinement. Although the authorities tried to put an end to the practices of kogoroshi and sutego in general by threatening harsh penalties, it appears they tended to refrain from making any further inquiries if children were ‘disabled’ or ‘disfigured’.
Regarding pre-modern Japan, looking for parental as well as social reactions to children with any long-term condition of impairment or visible physical deformity, previous research put too much emphasis on the aspects of either the abandonment of these children by their parents, or their social exclusion and marginalization, and, by doing so, these studies highlighted only the negative sides of the people's perception of and treatment towards these children. As for Japan's early-modern period, kogoroshi and sutego have become well-researched phenomena in the main, some studies even refer to for what reasons and under what circumstances parents came to decide not to raise but to get rid of children especially with ‘disability’ or ‘disfigurement’, but how these practices were perceived, interpreted and responded to on an ideological and discursive level when targeting specifically this certain group of children remains scarcely explored so far.
Taking a closer look at scriptures of officials, scholars and Buddhist priests, through this presentation, I would like to show that while some pledged for killing or abandoning such children, during the mid- and late-Edo-period, there further has been a great variety of voices in favor for these children, assigning to parents a duty to raise and care for their children even in the case they may be ‘disabled’ or ‘disfigured’, considering these children's lives as something that should be valued and protected.