Nakagawa Jun'an

Nakagawa Jun'an (中 川 淳 庵; born 1739 Obama ( Wakasa Province ); died July 2, 1786 ) was a Japanese doctor, botanist, and scholar of "western science" - Rangaku .

Live and act

Nakagawa Jun'an was born into a medical family who served in the Obama domain . He took an early interest in mineralogy and botany. In 1764, together with Hiraga Gennai , he developed a type of asbestos clothing as protection against fires.

After Nakagawa had learned Dutch with the help of the doctor Yasutomi Kiseki (安 富 寄 碩), he joined Maeno Ryōtaku , Sugita Gempaku and others 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.

Nakagawa was educated further through contact with the Dutch physician Carl Peter Thunberg , whom he - together with Katsuragawa Hoshū - visited when he was with the Dutch embassy in Edo in 1776 . Nakagawa was also friends with the head of the Dejima station in the Netherlands , Isaac Titsingh .

Remarks

1. ↑ Today the western part of Fukui Prefecture .
2. ↑ This was a Dutch translation of the "Anatomical Tables" by the Breslau anatomist Johann Adam Kulmus .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Nakagawa Jun'an . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1037.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nakagawa is the family name, Jun'an the first name.