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野口整体のコミュニケーション：伝統医療とその共同体による昭和期日本の医療と社会システムの補完

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Tanojiri T.

Analecta Nipponica

2017

issue 7

131-155

The aim of this article is to show the communication between the health promoting religious movements and the Japanese state and society in the Shōwa period. Following the American Occupation, the communication originating from Noguchi’s life-health movement proved to help stabilize the social health system in Japan. In the early Shōwa period many groups within Japanese society – from the royal family and the aristocrats to the common citizens – kept themselves in good health through implementing specific reijutsu techniques. The name reijutsu stands for the pro-health/religious movement started by Kuwabara Toshirō (1873-1906), the author of Seishin Reidō (The Excellent Work of the Mind, 1903), which encompassed Western writings on Theosophy, chiromancy, osteopathy and traditional Japanese religious pro-health techniques like shugendō or anma massage. Many schools of reijutsu were at the peak of their popularity in the 1920’s. One of them, taireidō of Tanaka Morihei (1884–1928), also gained popularity in China becoming the foundation for contemporary Chinese qigong breathing exercises. The form that won popularity in the West, due to Japanese emigrants to Hawaii, was reiki. In the 1930’s Mitsui Kōshi (1883–1953) developed reijutsu into a system combining politics and Japanese traditional waka poetry, a system that was aimed at the unity of a human being with the emperor and the universe. As for Mitsui, he became a prominent political figure until 1945. Later the reijutsu movement failed to find continuators. The passing away of charismatic leaders resolved in the dissolution of the reijutsu societies. The exceptions were the reiki movement – which gained global popularity and was subsequently reintroduced to Japan in the 1980’s, and the Noguchi Seitai (Noguchi’s technique) movement. Noguchi Seitai is a pro-health/religious movement founded in Tokyo in 1927 by Noguchi Haruchika (1911–1976). The movement functioned at first as a psychotherapy group, a modification of reijutsu. In the year 1942 the movement was examined by the Ministry of Health committee for osteopathic practices. It established its legal standing as a foundation and was registered as the Seitai Kyōkai (Seitai Association) in 1956. Nowadays it is a public profit organization. The presidents of the organization are former members of the aristocracy or former prime ministers, maintaining a quality and high profile for all of Japanese society. Starting from the 1980’s the organization obtained major support from the young population, since they saw it as a leading force within the Japanese New Age movement. Currently the Association claims around 80 thousand active members, and it is believed the number of people practicing privately, though they do not belong to the organization, is ten times greater. Noguchi Seitai is a movement that is still active today due to excellent communication between the movement and the Japanese state and society established in the Shōwa period. Just as in the case of other reijutsu forms, Noguchi’s transmission is characterized by specific techniques involving physical practices, studying difficult philosophical concepts and painstaking self-development, which has at times caused tension in dealings with police and other state institutions. However, Noguchi Seitai, due to the communication with the state as well as the citizens established during the occupation period, made it so that after the year 1953, the movement became a so called “stabilizing dysfunction” from the sociological perspective, and took on the role of supplementing the Japanese social health system.

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1 Analecta Nipponica

1 Tanojiri T.

1 2017

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野口整体のコミュニケーション：伝統医療とその共同体による昭和期日本の医療と社会システムの補完