Katsuragawa Hoshu

Katsuragawa Hoshū (桂川甫 周; born 1751 in Edo ; died August 2, 1809 ibid) was a Japanese doctor and scholar of the "western sciences" - Rangaku .

Live and act

Katsuragawa Hoshū came from a family of doctors who had been the shogun's personal doctor for three generations. He, well versed in the “Dutch science” Rangaku , joined the doctors Maeno Ryōtaku , Sugita Gempaku , Nakagawa Jun'an and others, who were also familiar with Dutch, to translate the book “Ontleedkundige Tafelen” from 1734 into Japanese. In 1774 the translation was published as “ Kaitai Shinsho ” (解体 新書), for example “New Book of Anatomy”. This book became the basis for further studies in Japan on Western medicine.

The Dutch physician Carl Peter Thunberg , he - along with Nakagawa - attended, as this in the Dutch embassy in 1776 Edo was staying, wrote appreciatively about him, including the head of the Dutch station Dejima , Isaac Titsingh . In 1777 he became the Shogun's personal physician, the fourth of his family. He also taught at the medical school of the Tokugawa Shogunate , the Igakukan (医学 館).

Katsuragawa's works include "Hokusa Bunryaku" (北 槎 聞 略) from 1794, in which he describes the experiences of the seaman Daikokuya Kōdayū (1751–1828), who once ended up in Russia, 1801 the first work on the use of the microscope in Japan "Kembikyō yohō" (顕 微鏡 用法) and a memorandum on coastal defense.

Remarks

1. ↑ This was a Dutch translation of the "Anatomical Tables" by the Breslau anatomist Johann Adam Kulmus .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Katsuragawa Hoshū . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 756.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Katsuragawa is the family name, Hoshū the first name.