Nihon ishigaku zasshi. [Journal of Japanese history of medicine]最新文献

According to Hashida's theory, the medical professions encounter not "a disease", but "the person who is suffering from his/her disorders". However, the medical professions cannot apply "I-GAKU" directly to him/her who exists as an individual and specific empirical fact because "I-GAKU" is nothing more than a "medical science", a theory based on a collection of scientific facts which are abstract and notional. Therefore, "I-JUTSU" is required to convert scientific facts to empirical facts. Then, "I-DOU" moves the medical professions into "I-JUTSU", and also it demands observance from not only the medical profession, but also from the person who undergoes "I-JUTSU". Ultimately, "Medicine" is realized when these three constituents works mutually.

During the years when Dr. M. Matsuoka was professor of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kyoto Medical School, Kyoto Imperial University (June, 1907-January, 1914), seven doctors worked as his faculty members and founded the base of the current development and reputation of the Department. After resignation from their academic positions, they served in orthopaedic practice in several areas in Japan where orthopaedic surgery was not well recognized. In addition, Prof. Matsuoka trained three doctors from the Aichi Prefectural Medical College (School of Medicine, Nagoya University) in the orthopaedic practice, including x-ray technique and they contributed to the development of orthopaedic surgery in the areas of Nagoya city and Tokai. Backgrounds and achievements of these ten doctors are described.

In 1857, Norimasa Muragaki (1813-1880), a magistrate of Hakodate, proposed to the Tokugawa shougunate the compulsory vaccination of the Ainos. The shougunate accepted this and dispatched Ryusai Kuwata (1811-1868) and his colleagues to the Ezo area. They practiced the compulsory vaccination of the Ainos, with huge difficulty, from 1857 to 1858. A merchant Kashichi Sugiura of Hakodate presented to Muragaki a picture of the scene of Kuwata's vaccination practice to praise his excellent decision on vaccination, made in October, 1857. This was painted by Byozan Hirasawa (1822-1876). Another picture of vaccination, painted by Hirasawa, has been found in the possession of the Omsk Museum of Fine Arts. The detailed composition of this picture is somewhat different from those of known copies. This suggests us that there might have been several sketches of the scene of vaccination. However, Hirasawa is believed not to have witnessed the actual scene as depicted in the picture, because Kuwata and other physicians did not practice in front of Muragaki during Kuwata's stay in Hakodate, as Muragaki did not describe anything about the vaccination practice in his formal diary.

Both the advocates and critics of what has been called "the new imperial history," which may be characterized by its focus on how colonies were not simply influenced by but also exercised an influence on a dominating foreign state, have inspired this article. The article addresses the production and dissemination of medical knowledge in its examination of psychiatric research conducted in the 1930s in Japan's unofficial colony of Manchukuo. It highlights the political dimension of studies of psychosomatic disorders, syphilis, and alcoholism among colonists by placing it in the context of contending theories of racial improvement and growing official support for mass migration, especially to northeast China. Moreover, it inquires into restrictions on the flow of ideas from the colonies by examining how these studies were received in Japan. While interest in the colonies ensured that psychiatrists in Manchukuo were able to publish their research in leading Japanese medical journals, their findings jeopardized too many political and professional interests to become more public. In much-publicized debates stimulated by the impeding establishment of eugenic sterilization legislation, their colleagues in Japan in the late 1930s who championed the argument of environment over heredity were conspicuously silent about conditions among Japanese colonists, using instead examples of European and North American colonists to make their case.

Pediatric acupuncture for infants in Japan has its own special method. There is no specialized literature about it that was published before the 20th century and it has not been investigated systematically. To elucidate the history of pediatric acupuncture, we investigated fragmented information on pediatric acupuncture written in the medical literature published before the Meiji Restoration and articles on traditional Japanese medicine (Kampo) and acupuncture published after the Meiji Restoration. We analyzed the history of Japanese pediatric acupuncture from the viewpoints of the acupuncture needles and the methods. As a result, we found that pediatricians used fragments of broken pottery for the treatment in the 1650's. This finding suggests that the present pediatric acupuncture needles originated from "ho-shin" which was used for the treatment of "oketsu" for infants (in ancient China) and that the present pediatric acupressure technique was derived from the pediatric acupressure by using friction with small stones. In addition, our analysis suggests that the integration of the edged pediatric acupuncture needles and the acupressure-like technique correlates with the "Regulations for Acupuncture and Moxibustion clinics" published by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Japan and enforced in 1912.

There is a historical group of samurai buildings called the "Preservative District of Johnai Suwakohji Important Traditional Buildings Group" in Kanegasaki Town, Iwate Prefecture. Two woman medical doctors (Misaho Aizawa and Mie Shiga, came from this district at the end of the Meiji Era (1910-1911). Misaho Aizawa was born in a minister's family in 1885 and studied at the Women's School of Dohshisha. After graduation she studied abroad at the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia and graduated from the college in 1910. Immediately after graduation she came back to Japan and got a medical license in Japan. She married a minister and was employed by the Red Cross Clinic in Fukuoka Prefecture. Mie Shiga was born in a samurai-family in 1880 and worked her way through various medical schools in Tokyo. After three failures to pass the national medical examination she received a medical license in 1911. In 1913 she opened her clinic of internal medicine & pediatrics in Utsunomiya. She made an effort to diagnose correctly and won patients' confidence. These two women had neither communication nor common points due to the differences of their family environment and their age. However, they were brought up by fathers who were enthusiastic for education and they made an effort to become woman doctors. Although women's social situation and the female compulsory education rate were low, and women's medical education was poor in the Meiji Era, Misaho Aizawa was able to enter the medical route under the influence of Christianity, and Mie Shiga through the assistance of her family and her samurai spirit.

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.