Institutionalization and

colonization of mental patients

in Germany and Japan
from the late 19th to early 20th
century

Akira Hashimoto
Aichi Prefectural University
(Japan)
Limits to institutionalization
in Germany

Go to
Clermont !
Above all, go
to Gheel !
Wilhelm Griesinger
(1817-1868)

Two patients by the

window and foster
family members in
Gheel (photo ca. 1900)
 Agricultural colony

(photo ca. 1920)

Agricultural colony
at Fitz-James, France
(est. 1847)
Agricultural colony “Freihof”
near Göppingen, Germany
(est. 1859)
 Altscherbitz

Farm
(photo
ca. 1893)

Patient’s Villa (photo ca. 1893) Patients working on the farm

 Foster family
care in
Germany

Mental hospitals all over

Germany introduced
family care. (Alt, 1903)
 Saxony
Province Uchtspringe
and
a family care village
in Jerichow
near Uchtspringe

Jerichow (est. 1900)

Konrad Alt
(1861-1922)

A small institution
(Halfway station,
Uchtspringe （est. 1894） Durchgangsstation)
The Germans “made colonies”
after foreign models.

The introduction of agricultural

colonies and family care was deeply
influenced by the reform policy in
terms of psychiatric institutions in
each province or land in Germany.
 Institutionalization in Japan

In Japan, where people had never

experienced institutionalization of
mental patients, the establishment of
psychiatric institutions was a primary
task throughout the modern period.
 A different type of
institutionalization,
“quasi-institutionalization”

A custody room by the

dwelling house A home custody patient in
in Kanazawa (Aoki, 1937) Gumma (T. Saito, 1910)
 Matsuzawa

Shuzo Kure
(1865-1932)

Matsuzawa Mental Hospital

(photo ca.1919)

“Occupational therapy” on the hospital

ground: Patients making a pond and a hill.
 Iwakura: “Japanese Gheel”,
an invented colony
Daiunji Temple (photo ca. 1930?)

Hyakumamben, the
ritual of cure

yadoya (inn) Daiunji Temple

Akai,
the holy well
for cure
 Iwakura’s new interpretation

“With proper modification

it (Iwakura) would become
a form of foster family
care.”

Patients
staying at a
Kure’s textbook: small home-
Compendium of style Japanese
Psychiatry inn, or yadoya
(1895) (hoyojo)
(Photo: W. Weygandt, 1933.)
 Conclusion
Germany:
The colonization reflected the reform
policy of psychiatric institutions in each
province or land.

Japan:
While no colony of mental patients was
successfully made, the tradition at
Iwakura, for example, was reinterpreted
as such a colony.