Meiji-era population control
Jul. 30th, 2006 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138Just splatting down some links from a rough Google search; no informational synthesis or conclusions, just brief notes.
Background: "money shots" toward the end of various Yamaguchirow K/K stories: just visual display, or practical explanation as contemporary contraception? Abortion/infanticide were allegedly common practices during the Edo period; were there commonly-known preventative measures as well? (Abortion was still the most popular method of birth control in Japan until fairly recently; the pill not legalized until the 1990s? main method available was condoms sold door-to-door among women, like the Avon Lady.)
Brief unref'd snippet: spotted and skimmed through book on current use of traditional medicine Japan, but didn't buy (title/author?); only specificish mention of such things was an acupressure/massage technique to induce abortion.
http://www.csu.edu.au/learning/eubios/EJ66/EJ66D.html: Meiji Restoration encouraged population growth and banned abortion and most forms of contraception; does this mean that such things had been previously available during the Shogunate, or was this just a campaign to keep them from being introduced from the West? The latter doesn't quite make sense considering the extensive Westernization campaigns to encourage everyone to eat meat, adopt Western clothes/hairstyles, etc., but hard to say. The exception for contraception was for "natural" methods, not further explained in this text-- rhythm method? coitus interruptus as originally speculated? (Sheesh, talk about Kenshin's inhuman self-control if he was doing this every time.)
http://www.dawncenter.or.jp/english/publication/edawn/9911/politics.html: abortion was relegalized in Japan in 1948-- not strictly relevant, but nice to know. Likewise, the Pill was approved for treating "menstrual disorders" om 1972, but not for purely contraceptive purposes until 1999.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~amason/Research/Mason.APP.pdf describes the Meiji population-growth edict as "prohibit[ing] not just infanticide and abortion, but also the manufacture and distribution of contraceptive devices"-- so no condoms, but traditional methods still okay?
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~patrick/geo324/Jolivet%20Chapter%205%20Notes.doc: MSWord summary of chapter 5 from a book identified only as "Jolivet"; cites most common methods of contraception as "physalis root or acupuncture needles"?
Jolivet seems to be this book. Amazon search on "physalis" within the text pulls up its use for abortion, not contraception; the root was used on a purely mechanical basis by insertion into the cervix at about the five-month stage. Other intracervical applications involved "needles from the wild mandarin tree, sharpened bramble twigs, Japanese coltsfoot, dwarf bamboo shoots, poisonous plants, ot burdock roots." Not clear whether the acupuncture needles were also used intracervically or actually down through the abdomen into the uterus (surely the latter would've risked peritonitis?). Drinking mercury (!!!!!) doesn't sound like a great choice either, "Convolvus seeds mixed with water" also mentioned as used by women in Edo (for abort. or contr.?); the only reliable form of contraception might've been prolonged nursing of the previous child?
Convolvus = bindweed/morning-glory; iirc the Japanese name for the morning-glory flower, asagao, was also used to describe the similarly-shaped freestanding urinals/latrines that were sometimes placed just outside the main... outhouse. (Awkward turn of phrase, but in the strict sense of "bathroom" -> place for taking baths and "lavatory" -> place to wash more quickly, neither of those is accurate in this context.)
Physalis family includes various ground-cherries, tomatillo, Chinese lantern, houzuki-- subliminal symbolism in Kiyosato's promise to give one of these plants to Tomoe? Not necessarily; there's a traditional houzuki market/festival in Tokyo that dates back to the Edo period, but on the other hand, this blog mentions a dual Asagao *and* Houzuki Festival... hmmmm. Really need to draw up a Cliffnotes-type supplement to the OVA, one of these days, starting with ADV's insane decision to change "Kyoto" to "Edo" in the dub and their idiotic "background notes" about Saitou and Okita.
(Later addendum: this page says of one Physalis species, "Some caution is recommended since an overdose of the plant is said to easily precipitate an abortion[218]"; footnote is for "[218] Medicinal Plants of China by Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. (Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN#0-917256-20-4)"-- if known for this use in China, similar application in Japan seems possible though not certain.)
http://haojing.hp.infoseek.co.jp/calen2001jul.htm (from July 2001) lists the Tokyo Asagao Festival as running for three days, immediately followed by the Houzuki Festival but not combined with it.
Now my brain cell is full. I will have to lie down so some of it can empty back out. @_@x
['Nother addendum: http://wom-jp.org/e/JWOMEN/repro.html sez that even in 2000, withdrawal was the second most popular form of contraception at around one-quarter of respondents, though possibly in conjunction with other methods (though it would seem redundant to pair that with condoms, which were the top choice at about three-quarters of respondents); the Pill still hadn't caught on very much, surprisingly.]
Background: "money shots" toward the end of various Yamaguchirow K/K stories: just visual display, or practical explanation as contemporary contraception? Abortion/infanticide were allegedly common practices during the Edo period; were there commonly-known preventative measures as well? (Abortion was still the most popular method of birth control in Japan until fairly recently; the pill not legalized until the 1990s? main method available was condoms sold door-to-door among women, like the Avon Lady.)
Brief unref'd snippet: spotted and skimmed through book on current use of traditional medicine Japan, but didn't buy (title/author?); only specificish mention of such things was an acupressure/massage technique to induce abortion.
http://www.csu.edu.au/learning/eubios/EJ66/EJ66D.html: Meiji Restoration encouraged population growth and banned abortion and most forms of contraception; does this mean that such things had been previously available during the Shogunate, or was this just a campaign to keep them from being introduced from the West? The latter doesn't quite make sense considering the extensive Westernization campaigns to encourage everyone to eat meat, adopt Western clothes/hairstyles, etc., but hard to say. The exception for contraception was for "natural" methods, not further explained in this text-- rhythm method? coitus interruptus as originally speculated? (Sheesh, talk about Kenshin's inhuman self-control if he was doing this every time.)
http://www.dawncenter.or.jp/english/publication/edawn/9911/politics.html: abortion was relegalized in Japan in 1948-- not strictly relevant, but nice to know. Likewise, the Pill was approved for treating "menstrual disorders" om 1972, but not for purely contraceptive purposes until 1999.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~amason/Research/Mason.APP.pdf describes the Meiji population-growth edict as "prohibit[ing] not just infanticide and abortion, but also the manufacture and distribution of contraceptive devices"-- so no condoms, but traditional methods still okay?
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~patrick/geo324/Jolivet%20Chapter%205%20Notes.doc: MSWord summary of chapter 5 from a book identified only as "Jolivet"; cites most common methods of contraception as "physalis root or acupuncture needles"?
Jolivet seems to be this book. Amazon search on "physalis" within the text pulls up its use for abortion, not contraception; the root was used on a purely mechanical basis by insertion into the cervix at about the five-month stage. Other intracervical applications involved "needles from the wild mandarin tree, sharpened bramble twigs, Japanese coltsfoot, dwarf bamboo shoots, poisonous plants, ot burdock roots." Not clear whether the acupuncture needles were also used intracervically or actually down through the abdomen into the uterus (surely the latter would've risked peritonitis?). Drinking mercury (!!!!!) doesn't sound like a great choice either, "Convolvus seeds mixed with water" also mentioned as used by women in Edo (for abort. or contr.?); the only reliable form of contraception might've been prolonged nursing of the previous child?
Convolvus = bindweed/morning-glory; iirc the Japanese name for the morning-glory flower, asagao, was also used to describe the similarly-shaped freestanding urinals/latrines that were sometimes placed just outside the main... outhouse. (Awkward turn of phrase, but in the strict sense of "bathroom" -> place for taking baths and "lavatory" -> place to wash more quickly, neither of those is accurate in this context.)
Physalis family includes various ground-cherries, tomatillo, Chinese lantern, houzuki-- subliminal symbolism in Kiyosato's promise to give one of these plants to Tomoe? Not necessarily; there's a traditional houzuki market/festival in Tokyo that dates back to the Edo period, but on the other hand, this blog mentions a dual Asagao *and* Houzuki Festival... hmmmm. Really need to draw up a Cliffnotes-type supplement to the OVA, one of these days, starting with ADV's insane decision to change "Kyoto" to "Edo" in the dub and their idiotic "background notes" about Saitou and Okita.
(Later addendum: this page says of one Physalis species, "Some caution is recommended since an overdose of the plant is said to easily precipitate an abortion[218]"; footnote is for "[218] Medicinal Plants of China by Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. (Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN#0-917256-20-4)"-- if known for this use in China, similar application in Japan seems possible though not certain.)
http://haojing.hp.infoseek.co.jp/calen2001jul.htm (from July 2001) lists the Tokyo Asagao Festival as running for three days, immediately followed by the Houzuki Festival but not combined with it.
Now my brain cell is full. I will have to lie down so some of it can empty back out. @_@x
['Nother addendum: http://wom-jp.org/e/JWOMEN/repro.html sez that even in 2000, withdrawal was the second most popular form of contraception at around one-quarter of respondents, though possibly in conjunction with other methods (though it would seem redundant to pair that with condoms, which were the top choice at about three-quarters of respondents); the Pill still hadn't caught on very much, surprisingly.]
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no subject
on 2006-07-31 06:16 pm (UTC)Thanks for the titles.
no subject
on 2006-08-01 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-08-01 01:18 am (UTC)Feeling less oogy this week? We're about to go high-90s again tomorrow.
no subject
on 2006-08-02 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-08-05 03:29 pm (UTC)My doujinshi preferences are still mostly for Yamaguchirow smut, though-- the general trend in their plots is mainly consenting adults rather than, say, schoolgirl gang-rape (as in the only non-Yamaguchi IY doujin I have, and many of the non-Yamaguchi RKs).