ABOUT THIS BOOKThe history of Western medicine in the late Tokugawa period is usually depicted as a prelude to modern medicine. By comparison to the Western medical science that was systematically introduced in the Meiji period, the Tokugawa study of Western learning is often seen as a hopelessly backward exercise in which inadequately equipped Japanese doctors valiantly struggled to make sense of outdated Dutch knowledge. In contrast, this book argues that the study of Western medicine was a dynamic activity that brought together doctors from all over the country in efforts to effect social change. Western knowledge was not simply the property of elite samurai doctors working for the Bakufu or domains but was shared even by commoner doctors working in local practices in rural backwaters. Through the examples of the doctors Takano Choei (1804-1850) and Takahashi Keisaku (1799-1875), this book explores the context into which local Japanese doctors incorporated Western ideas, the social networks through which they communicated them, and the geographical spaces that supported these activities. By examining the social impact of Western learning at the level of everyday life rather than simply its impact at the theoretical level, the book offers a broad picture of the way in which Western medicine, and Western knowledge, was absorbed and adapted in Japan.
REVIEWSIn this clearly written and well-researched work, Ellen Gardner Nakamura sheds new light on important aspects of social and intellectual life in Japan in the early nineteenth century...Nakamura explores the social networks and practices involved in the diffusion of new forms of knowledge from Europe and argues that ranpō (Dutch method) physicians created new "hybrid" therapies as a result of their "adaptive" and "creative" use of Western medicine.
-- Susan L. Burns Journal of Japanese Studies
This excellent book about Rangaku and Western-style medicine in the late Tokugawa Period brings new vitality to debates over the importance of Western influences in the 19th century Japan.
-- Ann Jannetta Japan Times
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Maps and Figures xi
Notes to the Reader xiii
Introduction 1
The Development of
Rangaku 4/ Historiography 14/
Takano Ch"ei 17/ Ch"ei and Takahashi
Keisaku 22/
Western Knowledge and Medical Lives 25
1 Takano Ch"ei and the Medical Arena 29
Takano Ch"ei 30/ Teachers and
Students 45/ Schools
and Identities 52/ Livelihoods 55/ Types
of Doctors 59/
Doctors and Status 63
2 The K"zuke Physicians: Rangaku in the
Countryside 71
A Place to Practice 72/ The
Popularization of Culture:
Travel and Amusements 75/ Pharmacies and
the
Circulation of Medicines 79/ The
Lectures of 1833 83/
Takano Ch"ei and the K"zuke
Physicians 85/ The
Physicians and Medicinal
Plants 96/ Beyond K"zuke 98
3 Famine, Epidemics, and the Social Role
of Physicians 104
The Tenp" Famine 105/ Images of Famine
in Yanagida
Teiz"'s Tenp" Kiji 110/ Takano Ch"ei and
Writings on
Famine 115/ The
Treatise 118/ Malnutrition, Disease, and
Methods of Avoiding Epidemic
Diseases 124/ Readership 132
4 "The Way of Medicine": Takahashi
Keisaku's Daily Work 137
A G"n" Physician 137/ The
Diary 139/ Medical Life 141/
Public Health and
Vaccinations 150/ Networks and Book-
Lending 153/ Village Officials, Poetry
Circles, Religious
and Cultural
Activities 157/ Travelers 161/ Old
Age 163/
Ranp" Medicine and Modernity 166/ G"n",
Literacy, and
Networks 170
Conclusion: Ranp" Medicine and Practical
Pursuits 175
Appendixes
A Treatise on Two Things for the Relief
of Famine 183
B Methods of Avoiding Epidemic Diseases19
9
Reference Material
Works Cited 217
Index
227