Hiraga Gennai
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Hiraga Gennai ( Japanese 平 賀 源 内 , also: 風 来 山人 , Fūrai Sanjin ; * 1728 in Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku ; † January 24, 1780 ) was a Japanese scholar, inventor and writer.
Life
Hiraga, who showed great talent even as a pupil, was hired as a herbalist by Prince Matsudaira Yoritaka of Takamatsu in 1744 and sent to Nagasaki in 1752, where he studied the pharmaceutical use of animals, plants and minerals. In 1754 he went to Edo and studied plant medicine there with the botanist Tamura Ransui . In 1763 his six-volume pharmacological work Butsurui hinshitsu ( 物 類 品 隲 ) was published.
Through Sugita Genpaku he came into contact with the so-called Dutch studies ( Rangaku ), the development of contemporary occidental science. He was very interested in the medical use of electricity and the classification of plants according to the teachers of the materia medica . a. a thermometer, a technique for making ceramics, along with Nakagawa Jun'an , asbestos fireproof blankets, and others. He succeeded in turning a defective device, an electrostatic voltage generator, left by the Dutch in Nagasaki, into a working device in 1777.
Hiraga, of which paintings in the western style have been handed down, taught Akita's daimyo , Satake Yoshiatsu ( 佐 竹 義 敦 ), to paint when he was called by him to drain the ore mines there. Together with a subordinate, Odano Naotake ( 小 田野 直 武 ), Shōzan became the founder of the Akita school (Akita-ha) of Ranga ( 蘭 画 , painting in the western-oriented style).
Hiraga published the satirical novels Nenashigusa ( 根 南志 具 佐 ) and Fūryū Shidōken-den ( 風流 志 道 軒 伝 , 1763) and the self -deprecating humorous essays Hō-hi ron , Hō-hi ron kōhen ( 放屁 論 , 放屁 論 後 編 , two "Discourses on the Fart"). Since he was largely denied recognition of his achievements in Japan, Hiraga had increasing psychological problems. He killed a student in a fit of madness in 1779 and died in prison in 1780.
In his hometown of Shido Prefecture Kagawa his house with herb garden still exists, next to it is his monument. There is also a Hiraga Gennai Museum in the place. In 2003 an asteroid was named after him: (8144) Hiragagennai .
Remarks
literature
- Haruo Shirane: "Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900" , Columbia University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-231-14415-5 , pp. 199 ff
- William M. Tsutsui: "A Companion to Japanese History" , New Edition John Wiley and Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4051-9339-9 , p. 129
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 平 賀 源 内 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Kodansha, accessed November 23, 2011 (Japanese).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hiraga, Gennai |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 平 賀 源 内 (Japanese); Fūrai, Sanjin; 風 来 山人 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese scholar, inventor and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1728 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kagawa Prefecture , Japan |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 24, 1780 |