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“Under this clear, smooth skin, blood too terrifying to hear of?” Araya Kōga and Gendered Representations of Hansen’s Disease / 「この鮮明な滑かな皮膚の下に、聞くも怖しい血」-荒屋香芽とハンセン 病に関するジェンダー化された描写
- U.S.-Japan Women's Journal
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 66, 2024
- pp. 51-82
- 10.1353/jwj.2024.a937200
- Article
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Abstract:
In 1923, the Japanese Home Ministry published a selection of writings by people institutionalized for the treatment of Hansen’s disease in sanatoria across the archipelago. Entitled Rai kanja no kokuhaku (Confessions of the Lepers), the book was lost in the aftermath of the Tokyo Earthquake, but it was rediscovered and republished by the Leprosy Prevention Association in 1934, as a genre of writing by patients later referred to as “leprosy literature” began gaining more media attention. The Confessions are a remarkable collection of patient writing, ranging from the legalistic form of a petition, to diaristic or literary approaches to representing the illness experience. Yet because of its convoluted provenance and the fact that these writings are anonymous make it a difficult source to use. Using multiple archival sources, this paper identifies one of the authors in the volume as Araya Kōga (1892–1938), a woman institutionalized for the treatment of Hansen’s disease who wrote about her experience of illness and quarantine. It explores the gendered tensions between Araya’s life, her writing, and the way her story is used by medical professionals. In doing so, I suggest that in addition to providing greater understanding of the Confessions volume, Araya’s account also reveals the multiple, contested, and gendered layers in both writing about illness experience and how that experience is represented in public health campaigns.