Tradition Reinvented: The Reimagination of Kanpō Medicine in Twentieth Century Japan
Issue Date
2020-12-31Author
Clark, Dusty Lynn
Publisher
University of Kansas
Format
233 pages
Type
Dissertation
Degree Level
Ph.D.
Discipline
History
Rights
Copyright held by the author.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This dissertation examines the ideological development of classical Japanese medical (later known as kanpō) philosophy and practice between the Edo period (1603-1868) and the mid-twentieth century. During this time, kanpō evolved from a system based in classical Chinese medical theories and practices into one heavily reliant on Western conceptions of disease and scientific practices, with seemingly ever less connections to classical practice. I argue that this shift occurred through a series of progressive intellectual reinventions of the kanpō paradigm beginning in the Edo period. Ultimately, the scientific rationalization of the kanpō paradigm and the development of a mass manufacturing process for kanpō medicinal extracts in the twentieth century undergirded the renewal of kanpō’s social relevance in Japan while simultaneously stripping its connections with classical medical practices. Though marketed as “traditional”, much of contemporary kanpō is a thoroughly “modern” creation, a reinvented tradition.
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