“Praying for the Cure” : transformations of Japanese medical traditions and the question of modernity

Culiberg, Luka (author)

“Science” and “magic” are not simply two opposing thought processes which have a straightforward relationship, first, on a presumed axis of progress—from magic to science, and second, within the context of a presumed cultural divide—Western “science” vs. Eastern “tradition”. The aim of this paper is to examine in historical perspective the introduction of so-called “Western medicine” in Japan and examine the idea that through this introduction “traditional” Chinese knowledge was simply superseded by “modern” Western science. By looking into the intellectual currents within the field of medicine, specifically in eighteenth-century Japan, and comparing them to those in the West, the article tries to challenge the narrative of “modernity” as a sort of uniquely Western achievement defined by “disenchantment”, “rationalism” and “science”.

• Language: English
• Keywords: science, medicine, West, China, Japan, tradition, modernity, epidemic, disease, epistemology
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: Str. 15-44
• Numbering: Vol. 10 (26), iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-135261
• UDC: 61: 16
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2022.10.1.15-44
• COBISS.SI-ID: 99562243
• Publication date in RUL: 03.03.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.
• Licensing start date: 19.01.2022

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: »Molitev za zdravilo« : preobrazbe japonskih medicinskih tradicij in vprašanje modernosti
• Keywords: znanost, medicina, Zahod, Kitajska, Japonska, tradicija, sodobnost, epidemija, bolezen, epistemologija

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P6-0243
• Name: Azijski jeziki in kulture
• Acronym: P6-0243