Sugiyama Waichi
Sugiyama Waichi , also Sugiyama Wa'ichi ( Japanese 杉山 和 一 , * 1610 probably in Anotsu ( 安 濃 津 ), Ise Province (today: Tsu , Mie Prefecture ), Japan; † October 6, 1694 in Edo (today: Tokyo ) ) was a Japanese acupuncturist who invented the "guide tube" used internationally today and founded the world's first training center for the blind.
Life
Sugiyama Waichi was the eldest son of Sugiyama Shigemasa, who served the feudal lord ( daimyo ) of Tsu , Tōdō Takatora . There are several theses regarding the place of birth, but he has lived in Anotsu since he was 6 years old at the latest. In his childhood he was called Yōkei ( 養 慶 ). After he became blind as a result of an illness, a career in the successor of his father was no longer possible. Therefore, at the age of 17 or 18, he began training with the blind acupuncturist Yamase Takuichi ( 山 瀬 琢 一 ) in Edo, but was sent back to his homeland at 22 because of his forgetfulness and clumsiness. Later, the renowned acupuncturist Irie Toyoaki ( 入 江 豊 明 , also Irie Hōmei) accepted him as a student in Kyoto .
Because of his visual impairment, Sugiyama had great difficulty controlling the puncture point and depth during acupuncture. Finally he developed a bamboo tube that was shorter than the needle by the desired puncture depth. Since this was now passed through the guide tube over its entire length, he could also use finer needles. Legend has it that he got this idea in a cave on Enoshima Island after spending 100 days praying to the Buddhist deity Benzaiten . Another variant claims that after these prayers he stumbled on the way home and stumbled upon a bamboo tube with a pine needle. Whatever actually happened, his invention was evidently made during the time on Enoshima, because from then on Sugiyama attached great importance to the worship of this deity. In diagnostics he performed a. a. an amount in the development of the palpation of the abdominal region, which at the time was more than before understood by doctors as a place of diagnosis and therapy.
Sugiyama's practice in Edo flourished. Since the 14th century, blind men were organized in a guild called Tōdōza ( 当道 座 ), whose members earned their living as wandering musicians, masseurs and acupuncturists. The organization was hierarchically structured in over 70 ranks and was under the patronage and control of the government in the Edo period. In 1671 Sugiyama reached the highest rank called kengyō ( 検 校 ) at the age of 62 . Eleven years later, by order of the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi , he founded an "instruction and training center for acupuncture therapy " ( 杉山 流 鍼 治 導引 稽古 所 , Sugiyama-ryū shinchi dōin-keiko-sho ) on a piece of land given to him in Edo . Ten years later, he expanded the school into a "training center for acupuncture therapy " ( 鍼 治 学問 所 , Shinchi gakumonsho ). This was the world's first institution for teaching the blind, around a century older than the "Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles" created by Valentin Haüy in Paris in 1784.
In 1685, Sugiyama successfully treated the Shogun Tsunayoshi . At the age of 83 he was at the head of the Guild for the Blind in the Edo area. In 1693 the government gave him a new piece of land, but he died before the school could be relocated. The Ejima Sugiyama Shrine ( 江 島 杉山 神社 , Ejima Sugiyama-jinja ) is located at this site today . Sugiyama's grave is located in the area of the Miroku Temple ( 弥勒 寺 , Miroku-ji ) in the Sumida district .
The educational institution established by Sugiyama and funded by the Tokugawa government was relocated again in 1741 and existed until November 1871. Mishima Yasuichi ( 三島 安 一 ) made a name for himself among his students . In succession to Sugiyama, he took over the management of the "Acupuncture Therapy Training Center" and ensured the nationwide dissemination of his teacher's techniques and concepts by setting up 45 teaching centers.
A society for the appreciation of the merits of Sugiyama founded in 1930, today a corporation under public law with its seat in the Ejima-Sugiyama Shrine, is dedicated to the maintenance of the memorials and the dissemination of Sugiyama's teachings.
Sugiyama's guide tube in the west
When the doctor Engelbert Kaempfer came to Nagasaki in 1690 and began his studies of the country and its people, he got to know three acupuncture techniques: the rotating puncture with the free hand from China, the " tapping needling " according to Mubun, and Sugiyama's "tube needling " ( 管 鍼 法 , kanshin-hō ). In his book Amoenitatum Exoticarum (1712) one finds u. a. an illustration of the guide tube. Later, medically interested travelers to Japan such as Carl Peter Thunberg and Philipp Franz von Siebold also brought this tube with them and included it in their publications. Today it is mostly made of plastic and sold worldwide as a disposable set with the needle.
Works
Three writings are attributed to Sugiyama, whose creation, as so often during the Edo period, also involved pupils. They circulated as handwritten copies and were first printed in 1880. The “Comprehensive Collection for Therapy” ( 療治 の 大概 集 , Ryōji no taigaishū ) is based on the teachings of Sugiyama's teacher Irie Toyoaki. The "three main concepts of selected needling" ( 選 鍼 三 要 集 , Senshin no yōshū ) is based on traditional Chinese theories. The "Handbook of Medicine" ( 医学 節 用 集 , Igaku setsuyōshū ) gives a general description.
literature
- Sugiyama-kengyō itoku kenshō-kai (ed.): Sugiyama-kengyō denki [biography of the teaching inspector Sugiyama]. Tokyo 1970 ( 杉山 検 校 威 徳 顕 彰 会 編 『『 杉山 検 校 伝 記 』 )
- Sugiyama-kengyō itoku kenshō-kai (ed): Sugiyama Waichi 400nen kinenshi [memorial 400 years of Sugiyama Waichi]. Tokyo 2010 ( 杉山 検 校 威 徳 顕 彰 会 編 『杉山 和 一 400 年 記念 誌』 )
Web links
- Ryōji no taigaishū ( digitized from the 1880 print edition in the National Diet Library Tokyo )
- Ryōji no taigaishū ( Japanese text )
- Senshin no yōshū ( Digitized from the 1911 print edition in the National Diet Library Tokyo )
- Japanese website of Sugiyamakengyō itoku kenshō-kai ( 杉山 検 校 威 徳 顕 彰 会 )
Individual evidence
- ↑ It was probably the result of a smallpox infection .
- ↑ Among European travelers to Japan, Engelbert Kaempfer paid particular attention to the organization of the blind. E. Kaempfer: History and Description of Japan . 1777-79, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 5, pp. 294f.
- ↑ This was an official rank taken over from China (chin. Jiǎn jiào , roughly equivalent to "teaching inspector"), which in Japan was first given to monks and nuns in high positions and later to managers in organizations for the blind.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sugiyama, Waichi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 杉山 和 一 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese doctor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1610 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | unsure: Tsu , Ise Province , Japan |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 6, 1694 |
| Place of death | Edo , Japan |