A Woman with Demons : The Life of Kamiya Mieko

Kamiya Mieko, the Japanese writer, psychiatrist, professor, and mystic, was a far more complex and intriguing figure than her popular image as a philanthropic doctor for leprosy patients suggests. A Woman with Demons corrects the myths about Kamiya's life through a close reading of her major work, What Makes Our Life Worth Living (1966), her other publications and her unpublished writings in four languages. In the first biography of Kamiya in English, Yuzo Ota focuses on her journey of self-discovery and her struggle to recover from the loss of a sense of meaning in life caused by the death of her first love. Ota explores how this traumatic event led to her identification with leprosy patients and created her desire to work for them. Kamiya Mieko (1914-1979) is considered to be one of the most remarkable women of twentieth-century Japan - yet she is largely unknown in the Western world. One of the first female psychiatrists in Japan, Mieko was also a translator, professor, writer, and mystic whose inspirational book, What Makes Our Life Worth Living (1966), has been read by millions in Japan.A Woman with Demons is the first biography of Mieko in English. Through an exploration of her published and unpublished writings, Yuzo Ota focuses on her struggle to recover from the crushing impact of the death of her first love. He explores how this traumatic event, followed by depression and thoughts of suicide, led to Mieko's strong identification with human suffering. Ota argues that Mieko's most important work cannot be understood unless one realizes that the author had once lost sight of what made her own life worth living. Contents Acknowledgments A Note on Names and Documentation Introduction 1 The Child of Very Different Parents: Family Background and Early Childhood, 1914–1923 2 Birth of a Little Cosmopolitan: The Swiss Days, 1923–1926 3 “La jeunesse riche et vivante”: Readjustment to Japan and Student Life at Seijo Higher Girls’ School and Tsuda College 4 Love with Nomura Kazuhiko and the Lasting Impact of His Death 5 Progress towards the Affirmation of Life: The American Days, 1938–1940 6 A Medical Student in Japan, 1941–1944 7 An Unmarried Female Psychiatrist at Tokyo University Hospital, 1944–1946 8 Kamiya Mieko in Her Later Years 9 By Way of a Conclusion: A Happy Ending Notes Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P S T U V W Y Z Few English biographies about Japanese subjects provide such an intimate look into the subject's inner life.