ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century Japanese physicians embraced a dizzying array of terms to describe cholera. These include: mikka kokori, kaku-ran, Asiatic cholera, cholera and gastro-intestinal catarrh. The changes in how the Japanese medical field conceptualized the disease reflected a change in both broader understandings of the illness within the context of advances in medicine and Japan’s understanding of its place in the nineteenth century world. In particular, the Japanese medical community perceived cholera as an external illness consistently associated with the Asian continent. This is not surprising considering cholera’s origins in India’s Ganges Delta region. What is surprising are the shifting definitions of cholera that created disease categories drawing distinctions between Japan and Asia, an effort at precision in classification and naming that simultaneously obfuscated the epidemiological realities of the disease.
