Psychiatric hospital, domestic strategies and gender issues in Tokyo, c. 1920-45.

This paper explores domestic dynamics in the complex making of institutional psychiatry in Japan in c. 1920-45. It mainly examines gender issues between the relatively long-lasting system of the family care of mentally ill members and the use of freshly introduced systems of psychiatric hospitals. I shall look at the record of Ohji Brain Hospital (1901-45) in Tokyo, which has several thousands of case histories mainly in Tokyo c. 1920-45. From the analysis of the cases of male and female patients, as well as the complex situations of their households and kin groups, I shall look at the gender issues in the making of the psychiatric hospital regime.