| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
In this research I examine the women's bodies and childbirth by exploring the life of a female doctor (Joi), Tamae Kogo and her medical documents. It is my intention to relate the changes in childbirth and women's bodies within a local society in the late 1800's and 1900's the medical documents and letters written by Tamae Kogo, who practiced in villages in Tsuyama for over 47years beginning in 1857.
In Japan, women's bodies were viewed as birthing bodies in the Tokugawa period. During the nineteenth century in Japan, women's bodies and their reproductive lives became increasingly subject to state surveillance from pregnancy through childbirth. State supervision of women's reproductive practices was not an innovation of the Meiji government ; during the Tokugawa period, state authorities had attempted to control abortion and infanticide.
Soon after its establishment, the Meiji government adopted the policy of trying to increase the population in order to build up the wealth and military power of the nation. This led the government to attempt to rapidly modernize the practice of obstetrics. In 1868, the first year of the Meiji period, the new government condemned the selling of medicine (i.e., abortifacients) and the practice of abortion by any midwife. What was new and effective was that the Meiji state mobilized medical professionals, particularly midwives who had received European-style training and who worked under the Meiji governments licensing system. The nationwide childbirth reforms carried out by such licensed midwives gradually abolished many customs between the Tokugawa period and the 1900's. Althoug Tamae Kogo had to follow national policy, she worked within her societies and played a significant role in the local community. She was close to the local inhabitants and closely associated with the women's bodies and childbirth.
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