While she was watching a documentary two years ago, Yukie froze when she saw a photograph of a man being held in a room with bars and looking at the camera with a calm expression.

The 41-year-old instantly thought that the man, who was referred to as “Kintaro” and living in Okinawa Prefecture, might be her grandfather.

Yukie, who asked that only her first name be used, said all she had known about her paternal grandfather was that his name was Kintaro, that he lived in the southernmost prefecture, and that he suffered from a mental illness after losing his boat.

Yukie’s father, who died a few years ago, had kept details about her grandfather from her.

Still, she was not sure whether the man on the screen was her grandfather because his surname was withheld.

Yukie was watching online a TV documentary about the “home custody” system, under which mentally ill patients were lawfully locked up in sheds and other structures at home.

The Kintaro introduced in the program also had a mental illness and had been confined under the system.

SEARCH BEGINS IN OKINAWA

Yukie, a caregiver who lives in Kobe, spent the next couple of months wondering what to do before contacting the Okinawa Association of Families with the Mental Illness, which was introduced in the program.

The association referred Yukie to Kazuyoshi Hara, an Okinawa Prefecture-based freelance director who produced the TV documentary.

Hara, 51, who has continued research on the home custody system, told her that the Kintaro in the program must be her grandfather because both had the same surname and were born on the same island. Yukie felt a sense of relief.

Determined to find out why he had to be locked up, Yukie visited Okinawa Prefecture in June last year, with Hara serving as a guide.

The home custody system, originally introduced under a law that took effect in 1900, allowed people to confine their family members with mental illness at home after gaining permission from administrative authorities.

Although it was put in place against the backdrop of the lack of public institutions, it was an inhumane system under which people were locked up in an unsanitary environment.

The underlying legislation was abolished after the Mental Health Law took effect in 1950, but the practice was allowed in Okinawa Prefecture under a separate mental health law applicable exclusively to the prefecture until 1972 when it reverted to Japanese administrative rule after its occupation by the United States.

According to a survey conducted by the local public health and welfare bureau in 1964, about 80 percent of about 1,000 patients excluded from hospitalization or other treatment were left untreated.

BOUND HAND AND FOOT

According to Hara, Kintaro, who lived on one of the Miyako islands, developed a mental illness around 1960 after his boat sank. He is believed to have been locked up for at least six years.

Hara had obtained the photo of Kintaro confined at home, taken in 1967, from someone else.

According to a man who told Hara about Kintaro’s life, Kintaro had a child whose name was the same as Yukie’s father. He was already dead when Yukie met with Hara.

Yukie’s father apparently never returned to the island after he left home upon graduating from high school.

The man who knew Kintaro had told Hara that Kintaro was bound hand and foot and put into confinement after he got violent with his family.

The man prepared a small room measuring one tatami mat (about 1.5 square meters) to keep Kintaro inside it. He made a hole on the floor for defecation and served meals through a small window.

Kintaro was sent to a mental institution after he was released from the barred room at home. He left the institution after about a year and spent about five years at his home before he died.

Yukie visited a place where Kintaro’s house stood. She found another building standing there.

STILL TABOO TO TALK ABOUT

Yukie felt that home custody brought pain and ruined the lives of not only those who were confined but also their families who had no other choice.

There is still a tendency on the island to regard talking about home custody as taboo.

A woman whom Yukie met there told her that she was once reproached by an acquaintance for talking about the practice to a journalist.

“Home custody is part of the past that we shouldn’t remain silent about,” the woman said. “It could deprive us of this island where we grew up, which is our emotional support.

“Now that I have been able to meet you, I’m sure I wasn’t wrong to have spoken about it.”

Yukie has been working as a caregiver at a nursing home for the elderly for more than 10 years. She feels that a strong bias against people with dementia or other mental illnesses still runs deep, and the root of the problem may have remained unchanged since the time home custody was practiced.

“I had felt uncomfortable seeing people and talking about what was supposed to be a taboo subject,” Yukie said. “But I want to openly talk about it because I don’t want society to create people who suffer like my grandfather and his family did.”

Hara’s new documentary film, “Yoake-mae no Uta,” which will be released next week, features eight persons who were confined in Okinawa Prefecture, including Kintaro, and includes an episode about Yukie visiting the prefecture to learn about Kintaro’s life.

“I want to shed light on the people who were rendered ‘nonexistent’ as part of our dark past,” Hara said. “Neither those who were locked up nor their families are to blame. We have to call to account the home custody system and the society that recognized it.”