At the end of the 19th century, Japanese modernizers abandoned the traditional Chinese-style medicine that had dominated for centuries, and turned instead to Western medical theory and practice . In this book, Ellen Gardner Nakamura reconsiders the story of the adoption of Western medicine through the eyes of six medical practitioners. The men who took the lead in transforming Japanese medicine under the new Meiji government were Western-style Japanese physicians, an enthusiastic minority who had studied European medical texts and techniques in the era before the ''opening'' of Japan. Their achievements in creating the institutions of modern Japanese medicine are celebrated in almost every Japanese medical history book. Japanese Medical Lives in Transformation , on the other hand, focuses on a selection of lesser-known men and women whose roles in the transformation of Japanese medicine were important but unspectacular. The Japanese doctors discussed here had various educational backgrounds. Most trained in the Dutch-style medicine which had become popular in the middle of the Tokugawa era, but they ultimately struggled with the transition to modernity. To what extent was their background in premodern Western-style medicine an advantage in adapting to the Meiji era? Who were the winners and who were the losers in the modernization process? What personal and professional challenges did they face? This book is shaped by these broad questions and the informative life trajectories of six fascinating contemporaries.

Autorentext
Ellen Gardner Nakamura is Senior Lecturer in Japanese and Asian Studies at University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of Practical Pursuits: Takano Choei, Takahashi Keisaku, and Western Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Japan (2005).

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Introduction

1. Kusumoto Ine (1827-1903): From Obstetrician to Midwife
2. Mise Shuzo (1839-1877): The Translator who knew too much
3. Ishii Nobuyoshi (1840-1882): Civilized Gentleman
4. Sagara Chian (1836-1906): From Bureaucrat to Fortune-Teller
5. Seki Kansai (1830-1912): The Peasant Doctor
6. Azai Kokkan (1848-1903): Confessions before the Grave.
   Conclusion
   Bibliography
   Notes
   Index