An excellent description and analysis of East Asian medicine Based on fieldwork conducted in Japan during 1973 and 1974 which involved the use of a variecy of participant observer techniques as well as extensive reading in primary and secondary sources in Japanese and English Lock s study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of an important dimension of life in Japan In well written chapters dealing with the philosophical foundations and historical development of East Asian medicine Japanese attitudes regarding health illness and the human body detailed description of kanpo clinics herbal pharmacies acupuncture and moxibustion clinics shiatsu and anma clinics East Asian medical schools as well as the interactions between various providers and patients customers Lock develops the cultural thesis In the process she provides information on things most visitors to Japan have seen heard felt and smelled but rarely understood Journal of Asian Studies Breaks important new ground Lock discusses concrete medical practice and its cultural significance in general rich in comparisons engrossing to read and analytically penetrating an important and absorbing book It is an engaging account of how at least some Japanese people respond to universal problems Most readers will obtain from it their first clear impression of what East Asian medicine actually is and does Journal of Japanese Studies Of considerable significance for comparative cross cultural studies of medicine of which this is the best account for a Japanese setting that we now possess Monumenta Nipponica Both Japan specialists and medical anthropologists will be stimulated challenged and engaged by this book Medical Anthropology Newsletter - from Amzon