Blind in Early Modern Japan: Disability, Medicine, and Identity

The book "Blind in Early Modern Japan" explores the history of blindness in Japan during the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) and how blind people could thrive due to their disability. It highlights the range of professions that blind individuals were involved in and the contractual monopolies they held over certain trades. The author argues that disability must be assessed within a particular society's social, political, and medical context and that bringing medical history into conversation with cultural history is important.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 06 September 2022
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

The loss of sight, whether in early modern Japan or the present, can be perceived as a disability. However, blind individuals in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) were able to thrive despite their disability. Blind people in this era were prominent in various professions and were able to establish contractual monopolies over certain trades through a strong guild structure. The book "Blind in Early Modern Japan" showcases the breadth and depth of these occupations, the power and respect that the guild members held, and the enduring legacy of the Tokugawa guilds in the present. It emphasizes the need to assess disability within the social, political, and medical context of a particular society and the importance of integrating medical history with cultural history. The author challenges the Euro-American-centric disability studies perspective that focuses solely on disability and oppression, arguing that it overlooks the unique situation in non-Western societies like Japan where disability was constructed to enhance the power of blind individuals. He explores the meaning of blindness in Japan during that time and its implications for current frameworks of understanding disability.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472075485