Sugita Genpaku

Genpaku Sugita (Japanese杉 田 玄 白; born October 20, 1733 in Edo (now Tokyo), † April 16, 1805 there ), practiced as a physician and scholar of "Holland Customer", for which he coined the name Rangaku, a great influence on the acquisition of Western medicine in early modern Japan. The published translation of it Kaitai Shinsho is considered a milestone in Japanese medical history.

Life

Sugita was (杉 田 甫 仙, 1692-1769 ) Born in Edo at the residence of Sakai Tadaoto, the lords of Obama, the son of the physician Sugita pants. Throughout his life he used the name Tasuku (翼), and Shiho (子 凤); in his writings, he also called himself Jesse (鷧 斎) and aged kyuko - ō (九 幸 翁). The most common but the name Genpaku (also transliterated as Gempaku ).

At the age of 18 years was Sugita student of the Confucian scholar Miyase Ryumon (宫 瀬 竜 门), in which he received a solid education in the Chinese classics. He then devoted himself to the western surgery under the guidance of the court physician Gentetsu Nishi (西 玄 哲, 1681-1760 ), the son of the famous doctor and interpreter Nishi Genpo (西 玄 甫). In 1752 he became a doctor of the fief Obama. In 1757 he also began a medical practice in Edo, Nihonbashi. In the same year he organized together with the Hiraga Gennai scholars and Tamura Ransui in Edo a natural history exhibition ( YAKUHIN -e ,薬 品 会). 1765 appointed him the lord Sakai Tadatsura the residence doctor ( oku - ishi ). A little later his father died, and Sugita joined its successor as personal physician.

When the doctor Yamawaki Toyo (山 胁 东洋) in Kyoto in 1754, with an official permission performed the first post-mortem of Japanese history and also was a font of crude, but strongly deviating from the traditional Chinese anatomy illustrations Illustrations print, many medical professionals have been in the country, including Sugita, strongly stimulated. As a result, he sought to acquire the Dutch language and collected at Yoshio Kosaku and other medically ambitious interpreters of the Dejima trading post information and materials. How many people interested in things Western scholars also sought Sugita at the hostel of Europeans, when the director of Dejima came up with the station doctor to Edo to prove his annual tribute at the court of the Shogun.

1771 received Sugita along with his longtime companion Maeno Ryōtaku (前 野 良 沢), a linguistically gifted doctor from the fief Nakatsu, and Nakagawa Anzhen (中 川 淳 庵, 1739-1786 ), as Sugita, a doctor of the fief Obama, the opportunity of the section one executed at the place Kozukappara wife attend. To this end, brought Maeno and Sugita the " Ontleedkundige Tafelen " with a 1734 printed in Amsterdam Dutch edition of " Anatomical Tables" of Johann Adam Kulmus Breslauer ( 1689-1745 ). The correspondence between the images with what they saw was so impressive that they decided to translate the book.

The exhausting because of the linguistic and technical hurdles project claimed several years. As Sugita translation finally wanted to print, pulled Maeno Ryōtaku who possessed the best Holländischkenntnisse and large parts had edited his name. Sugita went about its concerns, and the work was published in 1774 as " New Book of Anatomy " ( Kaitai shinsho ,解体 新书) without the censorship of the Tokugawa authorities intervened. As a result, the interest increased anatomical studies and dissections. However, the competent authorities gave permission required for this purpose until the mid-19th century. very reticent. Sugita and his companions had also demonstrated in her book, that it was possible, relatively independently gain access to high-quality western expertise.

The translation is written in Chinese written language in Japan played the same role as Latin in Europe. Since there was no linguistic equivalent of a series of anatomical terms, the translators created new concepts, among which some have held as shinkei (神 経, nerves), dōmyaku (动脉, artery) and shojomaku (处女膜, hymen ) until today. It was, however, also come to all sorts of errors, and the woodcut illustrations left a lot to be desired, which is why Otsuki Gentaku (大 槻 玄 沢), and others in 1826, a revised version Jūtei Kaitai Shinsho (重 订 解体 新书) published with engravings. Here was the frontispiece of " Ontleedkundige Tafelen " use.

Sugita 1776 moved his residence from the estate of the feudal lord in Edo on a rented near land, where he established a medical school Tenshinrō (天真 楼). There he is said to have supplied more than 600 patients annually. The Confucians Shibano Ritsuzan (柴 野 栗 山) described him as the most skilful doctor in Edo. In his later years he received the fief of an exceptionally high for a physician annual income of 400 koku of rice. 1805 granted him the Shogun Tokugawa Ienari an audience in the castle, which underlines his reputation in Edo. Two years later he left his position as head of the private school Lehnsarzt and the eldest son.

Sugita wrote several medical works, but the greatest influence exercised beside the Kaitai above shinsho his age memoir "Start of Holland Customer" ( Rangaku koto hajime ,兰 学 事 始) from. Here he describes - his time and placing himself at the center - the advent of Japanese studies on European science and technology, for which he coined the term Rangaku (兰 学, ran for oranda, Holland; gaku, customer, studies, teaching). Sugitas impressive description of the torments when compiling the " tafelen Ontleedkundige " made ​​on Fukuzawa Yukichi, one of the leading pioneers of the modernization of Japan in the Meiji period, such a deep impression that in 1890 he first the first time in 1869, which he edited text on the occasion of meeting of the newly formed " Japanese Society of Medicine" (Nihon igakkai ) sided with a moving foreword and had it printed again. Since then, Sugita and Kaitai shinsho enshrined as a turning point established in the history of Japan.

Sugitas grave is located in the grounds of the Eikan Temple ( Eikan -in栄 闲 院) in Tokyo.

Works

• Genpaku Sugita et al. Kaitaishinsho. Edo:. Suharaya Ichibe, 1774 (与 般 亜 覃 阙 児 武 思 着,杉 田 玄 白 訳,吉雄永 章 撰,中 川 淳 庵 校,石川玄 常 参,桂川甫 周 阅,小 田野 直 武[図] 「解体 新书」 东 武:须 原 屋 市 兵卫,安永3年刊)
• Sugita Jesse ( = Gempaku ): Rangakukoto hajime. 1869 (杉 田 鷧 斋[着] 「兰 学 事 始」 [出版 地 不明] ,明治2年) (杉 田 玄 白 着「兰 学 事 始」再 刻[出版 地 不明]: [出版者 不明] ,明治23年刊)
• Sugi Yasusaburō ( ed. ), Sugita Genpaku: Jesse nichiroku. Tōkyō: . Seishisha, 1981 (杉 田 玄 白 着,杉 靖 三郎 校 编「鷧 斎 日 录」东京:青史 社) = diary 1788 until 1806.
• Rangaku kotohajime = The beginnings of the " Holland- customer " by Sugita Genpaku (1733-1818); translated by Koichi Mōri. Tokyo: Sophia University, 1942 ( Monumenta Nipponica, Vol V, Semi- Annual No.1, No.2 )