Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; Part I. Basic Concepts and Attitudes Toward Health and Illness: 2. Japanese germs; 3. My very own illness: illness in a dualistic world view; 4. Physiomorphism (somatizion): an aspect of the Japanese illness etiology; Part II. Medical Pluralism: 5. Kanpo: traditional Japanese medicine of Chinese origin; 6. Medical roles of Japenese religions: a descriptive overview; 7. Medical roles of Japanese religions: a historical-symbolic interpretation; 8. Doctors and outpatients: biomedicine (I); 9. Hospitalization: biomedicine (II); 10. Medical pluralism; Summary; References; Index.

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The cultural practices and cultural meaning of health care in urban Japan.

Reviews

'For sheer virtuosity it would be difficult to find another book like this in the field of Japanese studies; and it also exceeds the range of any book I know on health and illness. Ohnuki-Tierney has written about central aspects of Japanese society and thought in so persuasive a way that anyone interested in Japan will have to read this book. It will be a landmark.' Robert J. Smith