The Emergence of Karuizawa as a Health Resort in Modern Japan

Abstract

This study explores the historical process through which Karuizawa was constructed as a health resort while emerging as a summer retreat for Western residents from the Meiji period onwards. From 1881, several beriberi patients, particularly those from the Takasaki Army Garrison, were sent to Karuizawa for recuperation. As reports documented symptom improvement and mortality reductions, the effectiveness of climatic therapy in Karuizawa became widely recognized within the military. During the Russo-Japanese War, recuperation facilities were established to accommodate beriberi patients and soldiers with other illnesses and injuries. Meanwhile, during the 1886 cholera epidemic, the navy regarded Karuizawa as a “disease-free area” and considered it a potential refuge. In addition to military personnel, civilians and female factory workers visited Karuizawa for the treatment of beriberi, and the area was also promoted for chronic disease therapy. During the Taishō period, tuberculosis became a major focus of treatment, replacing beriberi as the disease associated with “Karuizawa as a health resort”, thereby broadening perceptions of the locality as a health resort. Modern Karuizawa should therefore be understood not only as a result of its discovery by Westerners as a summer retreat but also as a process shaped by the interaction between health and place.