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H. Yumi Kim has authored an excellent work on the history of mental illness in Japan, a topic that has received little attention in academic research and remains unknown to the general public. The book exhibits high scientific quality while remaining accessible to a wide audience interested in Japanese society and mental health issues. With its original focus on women and family, and clear, precise, and well-documented writing style, the book establishes itself as an indispensable reference in the field, alongside the works of Margaret Lock (1993), Kitanaka Junko (2012), and Suzuki Akihito, to name a few. The introduction describes how psychiatry positioned itself during the Meiji era, emphasising the role of families and women in caregiving. The first chapter explores the theme of fox possession, a phenomenon already familiar to anthropologists. The second chapter (‘Cages in Rural Homes’) takes us to the early …