Sweet Bean Paste

Sweet Bean Paste draws upon the historical context of Japan’s 20th-century leprosy-prevention laws. Beginning with a 1907 statute and culminating in the 1953 Leprosy Prevention Law, the Japanese government enforced a strict policy of lifelong segregation for individuals with leprosy. Patients were forcibly removed from their families and quarantined in remote sanatoriums, a policy that remained in effect until the law was finally repealed in 1996. This history directly informs the life of Tokue, who was sent to the fictional Tenshoen sanatorium as a teenager and was “never allowed outside those gates” for most of her life (85). The social stigma created by the laws drives the novel’s central conflict, as the shop owner’s fear of contagion and rumors threaten Tokue’s employment and Sentaro’s business. Notably, the stigma has little to do with medical reality—leprosy has a low transmission rate, and a cure has been available since the 1940s.

Sukegawa uses this history to explore a deeper philosophical question. As he explains in his author’s note, he wrote the novel to challenge the idea that a person’s value is measured by their “usefulness to society” (215). This theme is voiced directly by Tokue, whose decades of isolation have led her to the conclusion that “we [a]re born in order to see and listen to the world” (199). Her quiet dignity stands in contrast to the real-world political struggle of former patients, which culminated in a landmark 2001 Kumamoto District Court ruling that deemed the segregation policy unconstitutional. This legal victory, and the government’s subsequent apology, provides an official acknowledgment of the profound injustice that shaped Tokue’s life.