ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Adopting An Epistemic Challenge from the Periphery: The Rise and Fall of North Korea’s “Bonghan Theory” in 1960s–1970s Japan

• In Event: Beyond Universalisms and Flat Pluralisms: East Asia as Method for the Global History of Science

English Abstract

This paper examines the 1960s–1970s reception and subsequent decline of North Korea’s “Bonghan theory”—which claimed to identify the anatomical substance of acupuncture meridians (kyŏngnak in Korean and keiraku in Japanese)—in Japan as a case of epistemic disobedience. Japan stood out as the only capitalist country to seriously investigate this theory during the Cold War, persisting even after communist allies denounced its scientific validity. This rare reception was driven by a specific political context and an urgent internal scientific demand. Politically, Japanese leftist scientists and Zainichi (ethnic Korean) brokers mediated exchanges with North Korea. During these interactions, views diverged: while Koreans regarded the theory as an emblem of “Juche (or Self-Reliance) Science,” Japanese supporters saw it as a triumph of “Socialist Medicine”—a viable, alternative paradigm to Western dominance. This support was fueled by the meridian controversy in Kanpō medicine. Since the early 1950s, supporters of keiraku realism had desperately needed material proof to validate their practice, and the Bonghan theory appeared to provide it. Consequently, research surged during the 1960s. However, momentum waned in the 1970s as Japanese researchers encountered insurmountable difficulties in replicating its anatomical claims, leading to abandonment. Ultimately, this history shows how an epistemic challenge from the periphery was mediated by a scientific diaspora and adopted by a non-Western center to fight its own internal Science War.

Author

• Jaehwan Hyun, Hanyang University