In many parts of the world, Hansen's disease (leprosy) was a chronic illness whose long-term care was a matter of debate. In early modern Japan, the “yōjō (cure)” for any disease was basically left to the private sector of each family, and no large-scale public health policy was implemented by the Tokugawa shogunate. Therefore, “kakuri (isolation)” as a public health measure was never used for Hansen's disease. However, since the end of the 19th century, many Asian countries, including Western colonies, applied isolation as the solution for Hansen’s disease prevention, based on the premise that the disease is infectious. Japan was one of the countries that adopted this policy. Nevertheless, the act of accommodating patients in sanatoriums also had the purpose of solving the problem of poverty among patients and their families, which was based on the persistent hereditary theory of the disease. At the same time, the introduction of isolation concept for Hansen's disease meant that “yōjō (cure)” for diseases, which had been in the private sector, was repositioned in the public sector by the Meiji government. In this process, the term “ryōyō (recuperation)” came to be used in place of “yōjō”. Thus, in Japan, concepts in the field of public health unique to Japan were established that were different from the English terms such as quarantine, isolation, and segregation. This paper will focus on the fact that the establishment of this unique concept was closely related to the Hansen’s disease policy, which is still relevant today.

Qigong, renowned for its emphasis on meditative sitting and/or body movements, emerged as one of the most prevalent therapeutic modalities in 20th-century East Asia. This paper investigates Mao Zedong’s practice of quiet sitting in his early days, influenced by his teacher and father-in-law Yang Changji, as well as Jiang Weiqiao, a leading proponent of quiet sitting in the Republican era and the author of "Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting." During the Republican period, Jiang’s teachings on quiet sitting were part of his broader approach to health and wellness, which integrated the theories of Japanese scholars Okada Tokujirō and Mishima Kin’ichirō with modern scientific concepts of hygiene and physical exercise. Under Mao’s regime, Jiang’s qigong teaching was linked to the Soviet Union’s Pavlovian neurophysiology. Despite the divergent ideologies of Jiang before and after 1949, his personal diary reveals a consistent reliance on the microcosmic circulation of the channel (jingluo) system in his qigong practice. Mao Zedong’s own encounters with qigong and the lure of scientifically validating the existence of the channel system led Mao to view Chinese medicine as a “great treasure house” with the capacity to redefine the fundamentals of modern biomedicine. Mao’s endorsement fueled nationwide research on the essence of the channel system, the extensive utilization of acupuncture anesthesia during the Cultural Revolution, and the subsequent surge of qigong fever that swept across the nation in its aftermath.