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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.