Hara Shimetaro

Hara Shimetarō (early 20th century)

Hara Shimetarō ( Japanese 原 志 免 太郎 , born October 4, 1882 in Fukuoka , Fukuoka Prefecture , Japan; † June 18, 1991 there) was a Japanese doctor who wrote one of the most influential early scientific dissertations on moxibustion and found it simple and effective Method to prevent disease and strengthen the immune system .

Life

Hara Shimetarō was born as the fourth son of Hara Taneki and his wife Toe in Fukuoka. The father, who served the local liege lord Kuroda until the end of the Tokugawa rule in 1868 and who was temporarily employed in the new prefecture administration after the Meiji reform , had great difficulties in maintaining the family. After graduating from elementary school, the thirteen-year-old Shimetaro moved to the doctor of the same name, but not related to him, Hara Sanshin, whose family had played an important role in the local health system for twelve generations. Here he acquired basic knowledge of medicine and acquired a license for nursing. In 1910 he was admitted to the Kyōto Prefecture Medical School (now Kyōto Prefecture Medical University ) after an assessment test.

After graduating in 1905, he first worked as a doctor in Kyoto, but then returned to Fukuoka in 1910. During these years he began research on rabbits for moxa therapy, which he carried out at the Imperial University of Kyūshū with the support of the renowned professor Miyairi Keinosuke ( 宮 入 慶 之 助 , 1865-1946) and his successor Professor Ōhira Tokuzō ( 大平 得 三 , 1882 –1962). After the publication of the first results in several articles , Hara obtained a doctorate from Ōhira in 1929 with a study on the strengthening of resistance through moxibustion .

This was the first modern scientific study on moxa, which is also cited in western studies to this day. A detailed English summary of the findings was published in Contemporary Japan in 1941 . Hara ignored the traditional meridians , in his opinion moxibustion was a stimulus therapy. Hara showed, among other things, that the number of white blood cells increases immediately after a moxibustion at point ST36 ( Zusanli ) and reaches its peak after about eight hours, which lasts for 24 hours. An elevated level remains for four to five days. If you carry out a daily moxibustion for six weeks, the increase in white blood cells can be detected up to 13 weeks after the termination. Similar effects were also observed with respect to red blood cells. He chose the points he used (8 points on the back in addition to St 36) for practical reasons.

Other researchers carried out similar investigations at that time. In 1928 , Aochi Masanori ( 青 地 正 Diss ) submitted a dissertation at the College of Medicine in Kyoto Prefecture, which also investigates changes in the blood count.Other authors of this early research phase were Nagatoya Jōichi ( 長 門 谷 丈 一 ) at Osaka University, Fujii Hideji ( 藤井 秀 二 ), Tokieda Kaoru ( 時 枝 薫 ), Kurozumi Hisashi ( 黒 住 久 ), Mizuno Shigemoto ( 水 野 重 元 ) and others.

Hara's rejection of all concepts that could not be proven by scientific methods aroused strong opposition from followers of traditional medicine. Nevertheless, he became known nationwide as the "Moxa Doctor". The influential women's magazine Shufu no Tomo ("Housewife's Friend", 1917–2008) became an important forum for the propagation of his findings on moxibustion and disease prevention thanks to Hara's good relationships with its founder, Ishikawa Takeyoshi (1887–1961).

In 1943 he founded the Kashii Hara Clinic in the east of Fukuoka. Here he practiced until he was 104 years old. For the last two months before his death, he was the oldest living Japanese.

Hara did not only make merits in the research of moxa. Professor Keinosuke MIYAIRI had found that an approximately 8 mm small screw ((also called "snail MIYAIRI" mentioned later) Oncomelania nosophora ) as the causative agent of Schistosomiasis dreaded parasite Schistosoma japonicum ( Schistosoma ) serves as an intermediate host. Hara, in turn, found fireflies (Lampyridae) as natural enemies of these snails and carried out extensive studies on their way of life and breeding.

Hara, who throughout his life propagated the strengthening of the human body's defenses through moxibustion, published a series of writings on this, some of which were reprinted.

Today a British organization "Moxafrica", founded in 2008, pursues the use and further development of Hara's therapy for tuberculosis in regions with limited resources.

Works

• Kyū no kesshikisoryō narabini sekkekkyū-sū ni oyobosu eikyō [The influence of moxa on the amount of hemoglobin and the number of erythrocytes]. Iji Shinbun 1219, Sept. 1927. ( 「灸 の 血色素 量 並 び に 赤血 球 数 数 及 及 ぼ す 影響」 『医 事 新聞』 )
• Sekyū hifu no soshikigakuteki kenkyū [Histological study on skin treated with moxa]. Fukuoka Ikadaigaku Zasshi 22 (2), 1929, pp. 107-133. ( 「施 灸 皮膚 の 組織 学 的 研究」 『福岡 医科大学 雑 誌』 )
• Yakedo oyobi yakedo ieusagi kessei no ketsueki ni oyobosu eikyō ketsueki ni oyobosu eikyō . [Burns and their effect on rabbit blood serum]. Fukuoka Ikadaigaku Zasshi 22 (2), 1929, pp. 134-166. ( 「火 傷及 び 火 傷 家 兎 血清」 『福岡 医科大学 雑 誌』 )
• Kyū wo hodokoseru kekkakudōbutsu no chiyukeikō ni tsuite [On the regeneration tendencies in tuberculous animals treated with moxa]. Fukuoka Ikadaigaku Zasshi 22 (5), 1929, pp. 446-516. ( 「灸 を 施 せ る 結核 動物 の 治癒 傾向 に 就 い て」 『『 福岡 医科大学 雑 誌 』 )
• Kyū ni kansuru igakuteki kenkyū [Medical research on moxa]. Kyūshū Teikoku-daigaku igakubu, Fukuoka 1929 ( 「灸 に 関 す る 医学 的 研究」 )
• Kyūhō no igakuteki kenkyū: Kokumin-hoken no shin-teishō: kekkaku chiryō no shin-fukuon [Medical Research on Moxibustion: New Public Health Proposal - New Message on Treating Tuberculosis]. Shinshūsha, 1929 ( 『灸法 の 医学 的 研究: 国民 保健 の 新 提 唱: 結核 治療 の 新 福音』 春秋 社 )
• Manbyō ni kiku kyūryō-hō [Moxa therapy as a panacea]. Jigyō no Nihonsha, 1933, 1953 ( 『万 病 に 効 く お 灸 療法』 実 業 之 日本社 )
• Kyūhō no igakuteki kenkyū [Medical research on moxibustion]. Shunshūsha, 1934, 1941 ( 『灸法 の 医学 的 硏 究』 春秋 社 )
• Medical Researches on Moxibustion . Contemporary Japan, Vol X, No. 5, May 1941, pp. 1-17.
• Saishin kyūryō hōten [useful book on the latest moxa therapy]. Shufu-no-tomo sha, 1941 ( 『最新 灸 療 宝典』 主婦 之 友 社 )
• Atarashii Kyūgaku to sono ōyō [New Moxibustionskunde and its application]. Hokushinsha 1955 ( 「新 し い 灸 学 と そ の 応 用」 )
• Hotaru [firefly]. Jigyō no Nihonsha, 1940. ( 蛍 )
• with S. Watanabe, H. Hakata, K. Matsuo and H. Hara: Effects of Electronic Moxibustion on Immune Response 1. In: Journal of Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion. 31 (1), 1981, pp. 42-50. Ditto, 2, Journal of Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion. 32 (1), 1982, pp. 20-26.
• with Hara Hiroshi: Atarashii kyūgaku. [New doctrine of moxibustion]. Haradoi Hospital, Fukuoka 1991.

literature

• Andō Noritaka: Nihon ichi naga-iki shita otoko - ishi Hara Shimetarō . Sennen Shobō, Fukuoka 1996. ( 安藤 憲 孝 『日本 一 長生 き し た 男 男 原 志 免 太郎』 千年 書房 )

gallery

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  Article by Hara Shimetarō on the influence of moxa on the amount of hemoglobin and the number of erythrocytes (1927). The summary was written in Esperanto .

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  Hara Shimetaro (1982)

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  Cover by Hara Shimetarō: Saishin kyūryō hōten , 1941. The booklet, which is primarily aimed at housewives, propagates direct moxibustion in the Hara style as an effective measure for maintaining health.

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  Zusanli (ST 36), according to Hara one of the most important moxibustion points for strengthening the body's defenses. From: Hara Shimetarō: Saishin kyūryō hōten

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  Advertisement for a moxibustion set according to Hara Shimetaro. From: Hara Shimetarō: Saishin kyūryō hōten

Web links

• English outline of the research results of Hara Shimetarō from an essay by Junji Mizutani in Practical Moxibustion Therapy (7) pp. 19-21

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Since the 17th century the eldest sons in the Fukuoka fiefdom served the Kuroda family as doctors. They all bore the name of the founder of the medical tradition of the Hara Sanshin family (? -1711).
2. ↑ Kyū no kekkyū narabini kessei ni oyobosu eikyō (The Influence of Moxa on Blood Cells and Blood Serum. Abstract in Journal of the Kyoto Prefectural Medical School, 4 (6), 1930, pp. 36-38. Aochi's dissertation was one year before the dissertation Haras submitted, but he had already published his results.)
3. ↑ Nagatoya published from 1931 to 1935 a six-part series of essays "Experimental Research on Moxibustion" ( Kyū no jikkenteki kenkyū 灸 の 実 験 的 研究 ) in the journal of the Osaka Medical Society (Ōsaka Igakkai Zasshi, 31, 839−890, 1931; 31, 3029−3036, 1932; 32, 701−716, 1932; 34, 2049−2071, 1935; 34, 20193−2201, 1935; 34, 2203−2218, 1935)
4. ↑ Fujii also made a name for himself with the development of non-invasive children's acupuncture (Shōnihari). See Wolfgang Michel: Treating Children in Japan. In: Thomas Wernicke: Shōnishin. London: Singing Dragon, 2014, 27
5. ↑ Tokieda Kaoru (1888−1947) published a dissertation at the Imperial University of Kyoto in 1926 (Nihon Yakubutsugaku Zasshi, 2, 45−69) and 1927 (Nihon Biseibutsugaku Zasshi, 20, 3319−3332, 3895−3920) a three-part work on his "Experimental research on moxibustion" ( Kyū no jikkenteki kenkyū 灸 の 実 験 的 研究 ).
6. ↑ Kurozumi also presented his experiments in the journal of the Osaka Medical Society (Ōsaka Igakkai Zasshi, 30, 3915−3942).
7. ↑ Mizuno experimented with both moxa (Ōsaka Igakkai Zasshi, 32, 2503−2508) and with acupuncture (Nisshin Igaku, 21, 1639−1696, 1932; Rinshō Nihon Igaku, 6, 1003−1012, 1937)
8. ↑ MOXAFRICA website

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Hara is the family name, Shimetarō the first name.