I had a week
in Japan, at meetings in Tokyo and Yokohama. In Tokyo I visited the Hansen’s
museum and witnessed the tale of the survivors.
I enjoyed the art galleries in Tokyo, Yokohama is a thriving outward
looking port.
When I knew I was going to be in Tokyo I contacted Kay Yamaguchi who is
a leprosy advocate and human rights activist and asked her to take me to the
Hansen’ s museum in Tokyo. We travelled on the Metro to west Tokyo to see the
one of the 13 remaining Japanese leprosaria and containing the leprosy museum.
( National Sanatorium Tama Zensho-en The leprosy museum is a new modern
building set in a wood. Outside is a sculpture of a leprosy patients and child
seeking help, wearing bamboo hats. I chatted to an ex patient, now in his late
80’s, he had come into the leprosaria in the 1950's and had worked making
bamboo. He had single facial patch and had later developed facial changes and developed
severe deformities after treatment. He described becoming a leader for patient
rights and travelling to Europe in the 1980's. He was away that afternoon to be
the prize giver at a local school sports day, such is the change in his status
from compulsory patient to celebrity. I was touched hearing his tale of
struggling to get rights for leprosy patients. The Japanese government
acknowledged in 1998 that the Leprosy patients should not have been in the
leprosaria and agreed that patients would have life long provision there. They
also promised to set up a museum chronicling the history of the museum. The
museum has about 10 different sections chronicling different aspects of life in
the leprosaria. The leprosaria were established in 1905 when searching for
patients were actively searched for and putting there seems to have peaked in the 1930 but
continued until the 19070's. Patients were detained against their
wishes. They were given a uniform and made to work at trades and in the farm. If
they got married they were sterilised even though leprosy was known to be an
infectious disease. There was also a prison for offenders, the offence was
determined by the governor of the leprosaria. The themes of the survival were
explored; some patients produced fine art work, there were journals to which that
the patients contributed. In the final section there was information about the
current state of leprosy in the world. The museum was beautifully put together
with nice photos and material. However it is very limited appeal for outsiders
because there is very little translation and the curator, although being
passionate about his collection he does not speak English. I don't think he
appreciated how important it is to make this work accessible. Kay was an
impassioned translator, talking about how the patients survived and were v
creative. We then walked through the leprosarium, some of the old
bungalows are still inhabited. The
bungalows were single story with verandahs and small gardens. Many of the
patients are now geriatric. We visited a ward where people were living in their
own rooms, the man here had made ceramics to represent the leprosy patients and
of a harmonica band he played in. He had married and left the leprosaria but
had now returned because his wife had died. We also visited another former
patients leader who is bed bound and frail. There were lots of nurses around
and the facility seemed well staffed and provided. It was a
fascinating exploration of the loss of human rights and the fight to preserve
their struggle. The leprosarium is also a large building with forest around it.
We had lunch in the canteen, bowls of rice and seafood with vegetables and
green tea. I enjoyed the journey out and back with Kay, she speaks
good English and has a social scientists’ perspective on life. I felt that I
was touching history by seeing the leprosarium and meeting the last patients.
They still have 1239 patients in leprosaria across Japan. At the height of the
leprosaria there were 12 000 in patients in the 1930's.
Tokyo felt a very full on city, the bars and neon lights were glaring
all night long. I walked around the Akasaka area which has many civic buildings,
the law courts, the national theatre, the parliament. These were some of the
oldest buildings that I saw and they dated from the 1930’s. This is partly
because of the huge earthquake in the 1923 that destroyed the city. I saw that
buildings are constantly being torn down and rebuilt in the newest, most modern
style. The national gallery has a
fabulous survey of the highlights of Japanese art starting with ancient wooden
bhuddas and ancient ceramics, taking in painted screens and calligraphy. I enjoyed a beautiful exhibition of the
painter Suzuki Kiitsu’s work at the Mid Town Gallery. He worked in the late 18c
and painted elegant herons, but also sheets of blue morning glory flowers
against a gold background. The designer shops in the malls are very elegant, many
with beautiful ceramics or designer goods. Simplicity and elegance were
evident.
I enjoyed Japanese food and eating small amounts of highly tasty food. I
had an excellent meal in a lunchtime spot in Tokyo with highly spiced pickles
and vegetables as a starter, followed by grilled mackerel, washed down with
miso soup and rounded off with some noodles.
We went to the Tsukiji fish market, the fish are laid out in repeating
rows. I ate seaweed soup and smoked
squid. Nora, Vai and Paul and I had an excellent sushi meal here. In Yokohama Nora
and I ate beautiful crisp tempura in a simple restaurant. Another restaurant
specialised in noodles and one had 8 bowls each containing a small amount of
thick udon noodles.
The world pain conference was held in Yokohama in is a vast new gleaming congress
centre. My student Nora had a poster on pain in leprosy patients in
Indonesia. She printed it on silk in
London and so it folds up small, tradition meet advanced technology, but I was amused
to take silk to Japan. Most of our questioners were surprised that leprosy is
still a problem. Later on Andrew Rice gave a talk on our leprosy neuropathic
pain work.
In Yokohama I enjoyed the port
museum traced the port history from its foundation in the 1860's after the
American Commander Perry's visit to its current form as a massive container
port. The material was well explained with good photos. I saw the
establishment of the different sea routes. In the 1920's many poor people left
Japan to work in the US, then was the era of the huge cruise liners and
passenger ships. The port was badly bombed during the war and then occupied by
the US forces, in the 1950's the port rebuilt and then adopted container technology.
The exports changed from silk to cars. Port life creates a more open outward
looking society and Yokohama has the largest China town outside China.
I enjoyed
seeing the modern architecture in Japan but I also felt that the cities were constantly
being rebuilt for the sake of it rather than conserving what one has. I was impressed by the stylish shopping malls
with elegant designer shops.
Society is very
orderly and pubic transport was excellent.
I felt that with the constant rebuilding and consumption there was
little time for reflection. I experienced v little contemplation. I visited one
of the main temples in Tokyo the senso-ji temple on Sat and it was very very
noisy, only on my early morning visit to a temple the day I left did I
experience some spirituality.
On my next
visit I hope to visit rural japan and Kyoto to enjoy the rural areas and
mountain walks.
After my
visit I picked up the book The Samurai’s garden by Gail Tsukiyama. This book is
a powerful novel set in 1938 and
describing how a young man is suspected of having TB. He is sent to a remote
village to recover and here encounters a silent gardener. The gardener rescued
a young woman twenty years earlier when she was about to commit suicide on
finding that she had leprosy. The gardener takes her to the leprosy village but
looks after her. It is a superb coming of age book and the boy learns to appreciate
people’s deeper values that go beyond the superficial appearances of leprosy. I
had been given the book in 2004 when I visited the US. Reading it now I
thoroughly enjoyed the Japanese references to leprosy food, gardens and growing
up. The book had clearly been waiting
for my post Japan enthusiasm.
The Samurai’s garden
Gail Tsukiyama
St Martin’s Griffin, New York
1994
Diana
Lockwood Nov 2016
