Yamawaki Toyo

Rear view of the "Nine Organs" identified by Yamawaki (Yamawaki Tōyō: Zōshi)

Memorial stone at the place where Yamawaki made his dissection

Yamawaki Tōyō ( 山 脇 東洋 , born February 1, 1706 in Kameyama , (Tamba Province, Japan ); † September 25, 1762 Kyoto ) was a Japanese doctor who carried out the dissection of a corpse for the first time in the history of the country and thus a lasting interest triggered by anatomical studies.

Life

Yamawaki Tōyō was born as the first son of the doctor Shimizu Ritsuan in Kameyama (Tamba Province). His father had received his medical training from the Kyoto court doctor Yamawaki Genshū ( 山 脇 玄 脩 ), who adopted the promising Tōyō in 1726. When he died the following year, the latter took over the office of his adoptive father and continued the medical tradition of the Yamawaki family as head of the family. In 1729 he received the second highest rank ( hōgen , also hōin ) for doctors at the court of Tennō . The medicine of the Yamawaki medical dynasty was rooted in the teachings of Manase Gensaku ( 曲直 瀬 玄 朔 ), one of the heads of the "School of Practice of the Later Age" ( Gosei-ha 後世 派 ), which was founded by Tashiro Sanki and focused on complex theoretical concepts . Tōyō was also trained by Gotō Konzan ( 後 藤 艮山 ), who was already aged at the time , who as a pioneer of the "school of old practice" ( kohōha 古 方 派 ) used the old clinical text Shanghan-lun (Japanese Shōkan-ron ) and propagated the importance of observation and experience. With this combination of the study of practice-oriented texts and observation, he is one of the representatives of traditional Chinese medicine who tried to adapt to the conditions in Japan and paid great attention to the situation of their patients. The new edition published by Yamawaki in 1747 of the recipe collection Wài tái mìyào ( 外 台 秘要 ) compiled by Wáng Tāo in the 8th century underscores his flexibility.

Yamawaki, who is well versed in the classic specialist literature, noticed that there were all sorts of differences in Chinese ideas about body, illness and therapy. The zhouli ( rites of the Zhou ) speak of nine organs, while a large number of later authors came up with eleven organs. After long discussions with the revered teacher Gotō, it was decided to dissect a river otter, but this did not yield any clues. In 1754 he therefore asked the representative of the Shogun in Kyōto for permission to dissect the body of an executed man at the Rokkakugokusha execution site. This was granted to him. The section had to be completed within a day. The cutting of the body (without the head) was carried out by a butcher, following Yamawaki's instructions. Yamawaki's student Asano Masaei ( 浅沼 佐 盈 ) made drawings that were later revised. For the first time, a representative of traditional medicine had used the body as an object for gaining knowledge.

Under time pressure and without any anatomical experience, Yamawaki found nine organs, which spoke in favor of the Zhouli . In 1759 Yamawaki published his findings together with colored illustrations in a "Book of Organs" (Zōshi 蔵 志 ). The five illustrations were rough and clearly influenced by the iconographic tradition of Chinese images. Yamawaki's findings were also outdated by the time they were published. But the fact that a well-known traditional physician decided on a section and was able to carry it out and even publish it with official approval triggered an upswing in the exploration of the “inner landscapes” ( naikei ) of the body - both among adherents of Western medicine and among open-minded people Representatives of the "school of old practice".

Among Yamawaki's students, his adoptive son Tōmon ( 山 脇 ush ) and Nagatomi Dokushōan ( 永富 独 嘯 庵 ), who tried to fuse Western concepts and therapies with indigenous traditions , stand out .

literature

• Yamada, Keiji: Igaku ni oite kogaku to iu no wa nan deatta ka. Yamawaki Tōyō no kaibōgaku to shokugyō oyobi gakumon toshite no i no jiritsu . In: Yamada, Keiji / Kuriyama Shigehisa (ed.): Rekishi no naka no yamai to igaku , pp. 457-486. ( 山田慶兒:医学において古学とはなんであったかー山脇東洋の解剖学と職業および学問としての医の自立山田慶兒·栗山茂久編「歴史の中の病と医学」思文閣出版. )

Web links

• Early modern literature on Yamawaki Tōyō in the "Database of Pre-Modern Japanese Works" (National Institute of Japanese Literature)
• Place of the corpse section carried out by Yamawaki Tōyō in today's Kyoto

Notes, individual references

1. ↑ Japanese calendar : Hōei 2/12/8
2. ↑ Japanese calendar : Hōreki 12/8/8
3. ↑ Today the central part of Kyōto prefecture and an area in the eastern part of Hyōgo prefecture
4. ↑ Yamada (2009)

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