Accepted Paper
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。 |
Perceptions of Children with Disabilities in Pre-Modern Japan ―From a Historical Perspective―