In this groundbreaking work, Susan Burns examines the history of leprosy in Japan from medieval times until the present. At the centre of Kingdom of the Sick is the rise of Japan’s system of national leprosy sanitaria, which today continue to house more than 1,500 former patients, many of whom have spent five or more decades within them.
Susan L. Burns is professor of Japanese history and East Asian languages and civilizations at the University of Chicago.