[On early red-head-style external medicine and the Confucian physician Mukai Gensho].

Abstract

In 1656, at the request of the imperial commissioner Inoue Masashige Chikugo-no-kami, the neo-Confucian physician Mukai Genshō compiled medical instructions given to him by the Dejima trading-post surgeon Hans Juriaen Hancke. This was the first text on Western surgery by a trained Japanese specialist. Based on an extensive analysis of related Japanese source material, it is shown that the manuscript Komōryū geka hiyō ("Secret compendium of red-head-style external medicine"), previously considered to represent Mukai's original report, is a rather corrupted version. Other manuscripts, such as Oranda-den geka ruihō ("Arranged formulas of Dutch external medicine"), Oranda geka ihō ("Medical formulas of Dutch external medicine"), or Shōji shinan ("Compass of diagnosis and treatment"), are much more coherent in their contents and fit well with Dutch sources. Furthermore, it is shown how Mukai "identified" and "translated" the Latin names of ulcers, tumours, inflammations, etc., by comparing Hancke's teachings with the most comprehensive Eastern source on surgical matters, the Waìke zhèngzōng (Jap. Geka seisō, "Orthodox manual of external medicine"). His eclectic approach resulted in a combination of Sino-Japanese pathology with Western treatment methods. Mukai had set an example that would dominate the reception of Western medicine in Japan for more than a century. It became widely known as early as 1670, when Yamawaki Dōen included many parts of Mukai's report in his Oranda geka ryōhō ("Good formulas of Dutch external medicine"), the first Japanese book on red-head-style external surgery.