Yoshio Kosaku

Final sheet by Yoshio geka-kikigaki ( 吉雄 外科 聞 書 ). The writing contains recipes for plasters, ointments, oils etc. It ends with the explanation: 'Translated into Japanese by the Dutch senior interpreter, the teacher Yoshio Kōgyū and written. Copied in Nagasaki; Keep secret'

Yoshio Kōsaku ( 吉雄 幸 作 ), also Yoshio Kōgyū ( 吉雄 耕牛 ); * 1724 ; † October 4, 1800 in Nagasaki ( Hizen Province , today Nagasaki Prefecture ); April 16, 1905 served as an interpreter in the Dutch trading office Dejima . As a collector and scholar, he exerted a great influence on the development of "Hollandkunde" ( Rangaku ) in early modern Japan.

Life

Kōsaku was born as the eldest son of Yoshio Tōsaburō ( 吉雄 藤 三郎 ) in Nagasaki, which at the time was administered by government governors and was the only port of call for Chinese and Dutch ships. In the course of his life he also used the names Sadajirō ( 定 次郎 ), Kōzaemon ( 幸 左衛 門 ) and occasionally Yōkōsai ( 養 浩 斎 ) as a literary name in addition to Kōgyū .

The language mediation between the Dutch East India Company , which was not allowed to train its own interpreters, and the Japanese authorities and merchants had been in the hands of a few families, confirmed by the local governor, since 1641. The history of the Yoshio interpreter family goes back to Kimotsuki Hakuzaemon ( 肝 附 伯 左衛 門 ), who served the Dutch in the Hirado factory and remained employed when it was moved to Nagasaki in 1640. Kōsaku represented the fifth generation of interpreters in his family. In the 17th century, the Portuguese language served as the main means of communication between Europeans and the Japanese authorities. Towards the end of the century, the importance of the Dutch language grew. In 1714 the governor of Nagasaki decreed that Portuguese was no longer required. Kōsaku had access to the trading station from childhood, so that he already had good language skills when he began his professional career in 1737 with the rank of 'exercise interpreter' ( keiko-tsūji , 稽古 通 詞 ). After only five years he was promoted to 'junior interpreter' ( ko-tsūji , 小 通 詞 ; literally small language mediator ) and in 1748 at the age of 25 to 'major interpreter' ( ō-tsūji , 大通 詞 ). This rapid rise, which usually took several decades, speaks for an excellent command of the language and diplomatic skill in the field of tension between the often conflicting Dutch-Japanese interests. In the course of his further career, Yoshio accompanied the head of the trading station (ndl. Opperhoofd ) on the so-called court trip to Edo (today Tokyo ) eleven times as the main 'Edo interpreter' ( Edo-ban tsūji , 江 戸 番 通 詞 ). As an 'annual interpreter' ( nenban-tsūji , 年 番 通 詞 ) , he also took over the main responsibility for smooth communication on Dejima.

The 'Holland interpreters' ( oranda-tsūji ) enjoyed privileged access to Europeans, their goods, books and information. The reports on what is going on in the world ( fūsetsugaki ) submitted annually by the East India Company were copied for personal use as well as anything that seemed important. Since the office was passed on to the sons, an abundance of materials accumulated in the houses of the interpreting families. The Yoshio family estate ( orandazashiki 阿蘭 陀 座 敷 ) in particular was filled with rarities from all over the world, and imported plants grew in the garden. In his diary, the doctor Tachibana Nankei describes a European bathtub, a staircase painted green, and curtains and chairs that are still uncommon in Japan.

Yoshio's treasures and his extensive knowledge paired with excellent language skills attracted visitors from near and far, including almost all well-known scholars of so-called Dutch studies ( Rangaku ): Aoki Konyō , Noro Genjō, Ōtsuki Gentaku , Miura Baien , Hiraga Gennai , Hayashi Shinpei, Kamei Nanmei , Maeno Ryōtaku , Sugita Genpaku and others. According to Ōtsuki Gentaku, Yoshio trained more than 600 students in his privately run school Seishūkan ( 成 秀 館 ). In 1788 the artist Shiba Kōkan , who was interested in Western painting, visited Yoshio's property. The portrait of the white-bearded Yoshio made on this occasion has been preserved. On New Year's Day of the Western calendar, people gathered in his home for the 'Holland New Year' ( Oranda shogatsu ). Ōtsuki Gentaku, who matured into an outstanding scholar, adopted this custom when he founded his own private school Shirandō ( 芝蘭 堂 ) in Edo in the late 1980s .

Kōsaku, who developed a keen interest in astronomy, geography and especially in Western medicine, maintained close contact with the doctors of the Dutch trading post. Above all, Philipp Pieter Musculus (stay in Japan: 1740–47), Doede Everts (stay in Japan: 1742–45), George Rudolph Bauer from Wroclaw (stay in Japan: 1759–62) and Carl von Linné's pupil and later successor at Uppsala University, the botanist Carl Peter Thunberg (stay in Japan: 1775–76) should be mentioned. Through these contacts and intensive literature studies, he accumulated a considerable amount of knowledge, which was spread as ' Yoshio- style surgery' ( Yoshio-ryū geka ). Yoshio's students studied the Dutch language and script, diagnostic methods , bloodletting , medicines, wound treatment , the therapy of tumors , broken bones and dislocations . His related writings, translations and summaries of western textbooks circulated as handwritten copies ( shahon ) in large numbers. He was familiar with the work of the surgeons Ambroise Paré , Lorenz Heister , Joseph Jakob Plenck and the gynecologist William Smellie and was verifiably familiar with the reference works of Johann Jacob Woyt , Noël Chomel and François Halma .

Among the multitude of his writings, some became well known: Orandaryū kōyakuhō ( 和 蘭 流 膏 薬 方 ), Seikotsu yōketsu ( 正骨 要訣 ), Purenki baisōhen ( 布 斂 吉 黴 瘡 篇 ) and In'eki hatsubi ( 因 液 発 備 , 1815 posthumous printed). Yoshio, who through Thunberg got to know the therapy of syphilis with mercury propagated by Gerard van Swieten , was the first to apply the Liquor Swietenii in Japan.

Thanks to his prominent position in the Nagasaki interpreter hierarchy, Yoshio was involved in all important processes as a language mediator and behind the scenes as an advisor. He was one of the best-informed Japanese of his age. In retrospect of the 19th century, the translation of the “Anatomical Tables” by Johann Adam Kulmus made by Sugita Genpaku , Maeno Ryōtaku and their companions was considered a decisive impetus for the upswing of the “Holland Studies”. But it was Yoshio who laid the foundations for the independent study of Western medicine over the decades. It was not without reason that Sugita Genpaku asked him for a preface for her 'New Book of Anatomy' ( Kaitaishinsho , 1774).

Yoshio died in the autumn of 1800 after 53 years in the service of Dutch-Japanese understanding in his house in the Hirado (sic) district of Nagasaki and was born in the Zenrin Temple ( Zenrin-ji , 禅林 寺 ) under the posthumous name of Kanda Kōgyū ( 閑 田 耕牛 ) buried.

literature

• Koga, Jūjirō: Seiyō-ijutsu denrai-shi . Tōkyō: Keiseisha, 1972. ( 古 賀 十二 郎 『西洋 医術 伝 来 史』 形成 社 )
• Katagiri, Kazuo: Edo no ranpō-igaku koto hajime - Oranda-tsūji Yoshio Kōzaemon Kōgyū . Tokyo: Maruzen-Library, 2000. ( 片 桐 一 男 『江 戸 の 蘭 方 医学 事 事 始 阿蘭 陀 通 詞 ・ 吉雄幸 左衛 門 耕牛』 )
• Katsumori, Noriko: Yoshio Kōgyū - gōmai ni shite meisei takaki Oranda-tsūji, ranpō-i . In: W. Michel, Y. Torii, M. Kawashima (ed.): Kyūshū no rangaku - ekkyō to kōryū. Kyōto: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 2009, pp. 94–101 ( 勝 盛典 子 「吉雄耕 牛 - 豪邁 に し て 名声 高 き オ ラ ン ン ダ 通 詞 ・ 蘭 方 医」 、 『九州 の 蘭 学 ─ 越境 と 交流』 )

Remarks

1. ↑ According to the Japanese calendar, 9th year Kyōho
2. ↑ According to the Japanese calendar, 16th day, 8th month, 12th year Kansei
3. ↑ In the meantime, the generation that had acquired their language skills in dealing with Portuguese had died out, which led to a rapid decline in active language skills.
4. ↑ List of medical staff at VOC's Hirado and Nagasaki branches
5. ↑ The titles of the manuscripts show all sorts of variations from copy to copy, the content usually remained unaffected.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Yoshio is the family name, Kosaku the first name.