International Network for the History of Hospitals‘ CHSTM meeting with Dr. Tanaka8.11.2026 {en}
The second meeting of the International Network for the History of Hospital’s (INHH) working group of the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine takes place this Tuesday, 10 November at 9:00-10:30 CEST/17:00-18:30 JST. Kathryn Tanaka (University of Hyogo) will be presenting ‚The Fruit of Illness: Politics, Patient Labor and Poetry in Twentieth Century Japanese Leprosaria.‘
To join the working group and receive the Zoom link to the meeting, please visit: https://www.chstm.org/group/international-network-history-hospitals
We are very excited about continuing the discussion around this year’s series exploring the theme of work in hospitals and leprosaria. We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!
Abstract: In the early twentieth century, the Japanese government established a system of public sanatoria designed to quarantine people diagnosed with Hansen’s disease who had no means of family support. The institutions were founded with the idea patients would be active in maintaining the hospital community, which meant that residents whose cases were relatively less advanced did a variety of jobs around the institution. These ranged from farming and caring for animals to assisting in medical experiments, cleaning bandages, and caring for residents who were seriously ill. Patient labor became a part of daily life, with many residents including references to their work in poetry they wrote. An examination of how residents wrote about patient labor in their literature reveals an inherent tension between labor as a form of care and mutual aid in institutional communities, on the one hand, and as a perceived enforcement of institutional power or exploitation on the other. This presentation argues that patient poetry represents labor as one way in which residents cared for one another, even as the same work reproduced institutional hierarchy and divisions.
Bio: Kathryn M. Tanaka (University of Chicago, PhD), associate professor at the University of Hyogo, is a Japanese literary scholar who works on the intersections of medicine, literature, media, and culture. Her work focuses primarily on Hansen’s disease and modern Japanese literature. In addition to work on literature by minority groups and gender in public sanatoria and popular media, she also has several articles about Hōjō Tamio, and has done translations of several of his stories. She has also published work on Amabie and Japanese culture in the COVID-19 pandemic. Her most recent articles include Araya Koga and Gendered Representations of Hansen’s Disease (US‑Japan Women s Journal, 2024).
Further information at https://www.chstm.org/group/international-network-history-hospitals.
Source: International Network for the History of Hospitals‘ CHSTM meeting with Dr. Tanaka (Tuesday, 10 Nov.) | H-Net, H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online „CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.“
