In: Hans Dieter Ölschleger (ed): Theories and Methods in Japanese Studies: Current State & Future Developments - Papers in Honor of Josef Kreiner. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress, Göttingen, 2007, pp. 285-302. PDF-file of the printed version (Kyushu University Institutional Repository)

(pre-publication version with different formatting, footnotes etc. and illustrations in colour)

Blind Spots

Until now the introduction of Western science and technology into Japan in the Edo era has been closely linked to the emergence of the so-called ’dutch Learning' (rangaku)[1] in the early eighteenth century.[2] This development is generally attributed to certain political measures taken by the shôgun Tokugawa Yoshimune.[3] Arai Hakuseki[4], one of the leading intellectuals during the reign of Ienobu[5], proposed concepts to promote the wealth of the country. These were endorsed and enforced by Ienobu’s successor, Yoshimune, who lifted import restrictions on Western books, promoted the domestic production of herbs and drugs while importing and investigating foreign medicinal materials delivered by the Dutch East India Company and Chinese merchants.[6]

In contrast, there has been little interest in the scientific interchange between Japan and the West during the seventeenth century. One source for this 'blind spot' is Sugita Gempaku (1733-1817), the most prominent eighteenth-century medical pioneer and author of Rangaku koto hajime [The Beginning of Dutch Learning]. These memoirs show that Sugita was well aware of the early transmissions of Western surgery to Japan. However, he considered these to be rudimentary when compared with the dramatic achievements of his era.[7] Moreover, by focusing on the activities in the Edo and Kansai areas, he drew much attention away from the groundbreaking contributions by the interpreters in Nagasaki. Sugita’s writings became highly influential in later discussions about the development of Dutch Learning, and even now his views are shared at least implicitly by quite a number of scholars.

Furthermore, Japanese source material relating to the transmission of Western science in the seventeenth century is scarce and often corrupted by later copyists. Without collecting and comparing a great number of manuscripts and the use of Dutch trade records it is almost impossible to sort things out. Later periods look much more promising.

Last but not least, after the expulsion of the last Southern Barbarians (nambanjin[8]) in 1639, Japan seemed to have entered a phase of reduced interaction with the outside world. The term ‘seclusion of the country’ (sakoku[9]), coined by Shizuki Tadao[10] in 1801 during his translation of Engelbert Kaempfer’s famous treatise on seventeenth-century Japan, encouraged the general idea that the country was focused on repulsion and restriction rather than on expanding its exchange with foreigners.[11] Although the majority of historians was always well aware that Japan was not sealed hermetically, the concept of seclusion dominated historical writing since the Meiji era until the latter half of the twentieth century.[12]

Then, stimulated by political and economic changes during the 1980s, Japanese and foreign historians began to re-evaluate Tokugawa Japan’s position within the framework international relations, its boundaries, the influx of goods and information, and its contribution to early modern global trade. Furthermore, what is called the ‘Needham Question’, that is, why did the scientific revolution not occur in China, also bothers researchers dealing with the history of Japan’s modernization. One of the main aims of the priority area project Edo no monozukuri (2002-2005) was to determine the part that the Japanese played in the interactions with foreign influences that led to the development of science and technology in Japan during the Edo period. No doubt the time is ripe to include medicine, pharmaceutics and botany in these discussions.

At least during the seventeenth century, the policy pursued in Edo aimed to control foreign trade and the flow of information rather than to close the country. Those at the top of the Tokugawa regime were well aware of Japan’s dependence on foreign supplies. Before banishing the Portuguese and Spanish, high-ranking officials such as imperial councilor Sakai Tadakatsu Sanuki-no-kami[13] ensured in negotiations with the head of the Dutch trading post, François Caron, that the East India Company was able and willing to supply raw silk, silk textiles and herbal drugs and medicaments (“droogen ende medecijnen”) in sufficient quantities.[14] Furthermore, imperial commissioner Inoue Masashige Chikugo-no-kami[15], many governors of Nagasaki (Nagasaki bugyô) and even imperial councilors such as Inaba Masanori Minô-no-kami[16] made great efforts to use foreign knowledge and goods to stabilize the country. Useful Western knowledge was never rebutted. Even more, shortly after the establishment of the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki in 1641, Japanese interest in European astronomy, land survey, medicine, herbs and other practical knowledge increased.[17]

Faint Traces of ’southern-Barbarian-Style Surgery'

From the beginning of medical history (ishigaku)[18] as a scientific discipline, numerous authors refer to ’southern-Barbarian-Style Surgery' (nanban-ryû geka)[19] as the first response to Western medicine in sixteenth-century Japan. There are doubtless good reasons to make such an assumption. Communication between Japanese and Westerners was much easier then than in the following two centuries, and the social and intellectual conditions were quite favourable for the reception of new knowledge and thought. Many scholars had parted with Buddhism. Furthermore, the efforts of regional rulers to bolster their domains through overseas trade led to the adoption of a number of foreign innovations, many of which stemmed from China. These included improvements in smelting and forging, in papermaking, in silk weaving, in book printing and in ship building and navigation as well. Most of this knowledge was not disseminated by Buddhist monks or scholars, as in the past, but by merchants and artisans; hence it was predominantly of a practical nature.[20] Medical know-how obtained from the Portuguese and Spaniards should have taken firm root in Japan, but there is no source material to prove that it did - with the exception of some remarks in Jesuit letters on a promising but short-lived mission hospital in Funai (1557-1587).[21] Given the tiny number of Western surgeons in Japan, the mounting persecution of Christians after the 1680s and resistance to such bloody activities as surgery within the Society of Jesus (“ecclesia abhorret a sanguine”), there was no stable basis for an effective and lasting interchange. Thus, in early seventeenth-century Japan we find little of any Portuguese medical knowledge that could be passed on or handed down to succeeding generations.[22]The “Anthology of Everything for the Outside” (Mangai shûyô)[23], which dates from 1619, is considered the oldest book on “Southern-Barbarian-Style Medicine”. But the mention of five plasters, washing wounds with spirits, and a few instruments like scissor and scalpel goes to show that, even after seven decades of interchange, a writer like Yamamoto Gensen knew almost nothing about Western surgery.

The Rise of 'Read-Head-Style Surgery'

The Dutch, dubbed ‘redheads’ (komôjin) by the locals reached Japan at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In 1609, they established a trading post on the western island of Hirado, but in 1641 were forced to move to the small man-made island of Dejima (Deshima) in the Bay of Nagasaki. Because they displayed tactical acumen and did not proselytise, they were the only Europeans allowed continued access to Japan. It is not by mere chance that the introduction of their medicine began during the 1640s, shortly after the East India Company (VOC) established a permanent position for a surgeon at its trading post at Nagasaki. This action laid the groundwork for a continuous medical interchange between Japanese and Europeans.

At this time, Caspar Schamberger (1623-1706), a surgeon trained in the fields of the Thirty Years War, accompanied a Dutch legation to Edo. While special envoy Andries Frisius conducted his complicated negotiations in the spring of 1650, imperial commissioner Inoue and other officials who were suffering from diseases of old age sought out the foreign surgeon, giving credibility to the professional skills of the Dutch. After three months Schamberger was asked to remain in Edo for another six months following the departure of the Dutch legation. The impression he made on leading government figures led to the rise of ‘redhead-style surgery’ (kômô-ryû geka[24]) as a new medical paradigm. It did not go beyond low-level surgery (chirurgica minora). There are no references to cataract operations, extraction of bladder stones, bone surgery, or amputations – operations that were routine for any ambitious surgeon in the West. Cauterisation and phlebotomy were abhorred by the Japanese. In addition, there is not a word about anatomy, which was considered very important not only at European universities but also in the training of apprentices by the guilds. Indeed, the early manuscripts contain only a few names of bones and a couple of minor remarks on arteries and veins on a ‘thin skin around the brain’, and the ’skin between the chest and abdomen'. Due to the language barrier the theoretical bases of Western medicine remained inaccessible. But knowledge of treatments of fractures, wounds, and various ‘swellings’ (shumotsu, haremono)[25] spread throughout the country, and high-ranking officials and feudal lords began to send their physicians to be instructed by the Dutch trading-post surgeons.[26] The social acceptance of this new art of healing is demonstrated by the licenses Western barber-surgeons and issued between 1658 and 1685 at the request of their Japanese apprentices.[27]

Growing Needs for New Medicaments

It is almost impossible to transplant entities from one complex context to another in an isolated manner. Even if they ignored the aetiological background of the Western treatment methods, Japanese physicians inevitably had to use herbs, medicaments and instruments that were not readily available. Thus, Dutch trade papers after 1651 show numerous orders for drugs, herbs, pharmaceutical oils, books, lancets and other medical equipment. But their problems were not solved by these Dutch deliveries.

On his request imperial commissioner Inoue Masashige[28] received two volumes of Rembert Dodoens’s famous herbal book Cruijdeboek as early as 1652 and 1655.[29] But no one at the trading post was able to translate such a specialized text into Portuguese, still the lingua franca in Dutch-Japanese negotiations.[30] In the old days of Ibero-Japanese intercourse, the missionaries spoke Japanese and many Japanese were versatile in Portuguese, some even in Latin. However, now the Dutch East India Company was not allowed to train its own European interpreters and the abilities of Japanese interpreters (oranda tsûji[31]) in respect to Western sciences were insufficient. Lacking the necessary medico-pharmaceutical knowledge, the interpreters used katakana characters to transliterate the new terms. But who among the readers of their notes was able to understand such language monstrosities as unguentodearuteiya (Unguentum de Altheae) or kurokusuorientarisu (Crocus Orientalis)? Thus, it is not coincidental that the rise of redhead-style surgery was accompanied by the appearance of private glossaries.[32] No doubt, instructions by Western specialists and Western herbal books were needed to sort out the new nomenclature. But, considering the language problems, this must have been a daunting task. The crude woodcut illustrations in Western books soon also turned out to be a source of annoyance. When in 1659 a volume of Rembert Dodoens’s herbal was presented to the imperial councillor Inaba, he rejected it, asking for a print with larger illustrations.[33]

Fig. 1   Plaster (Emplastrum Mucilaginibus) taught by Hans Jurian Hancke at Dejima in 1657 (Oranda geka ihô. 17th century manuscript by Mukai Genshô, copied by Kawaguchi Ryôan. Collection of the author.)[34]

An Official Request

Only once a year did a fleet of about half a dozen Dutch ships sail from Batavia to Nagasaki. As the East India Company was still struggling to organize its own medical supply system in south-east Asia, deliveries to Japan were irregular and highly prized.[35] This must have caused some irritation among Japanese officials. As we can see from the following events, government circles began thinking about the local production of pharmaceutical oils while reviewing the indigenous flora and introducing new useful plants with the help of the Dutch. In November 1667 the Company received a request from the Nagasaki governor, Kawano Gon'emon Michisada, who was leaving for Edo, and his co-governor Matsudaira Jinzaburô Takami, who was preparing to take over the office in Nagasaki.[36] During their audience with Daniel Six, the departing head of the trading post, and his successor, Constantin Ranst, they conveyed a message from Edo, carefully recorded in the trading-post diary:

There can be no doubt about the nature of this request, which was reiterated several times during the following years. Obviously, it aimed at technology transfer and the establishment of a fully fledged production cycle of pharmaceutical plants and oils while reassessing local resources with the help of Dutch specialists. Goodwill in such matters considerably facilitated trade negotiations. Therefore, as a first response, the Dutch shipped medicinal herbs to Nagasaki in the summer of 1668, with a promise of more in the future.[38]

Fig. 2    Report on Haeck’s investigation of Japanese plants (Ranpô sôki nôdoku-shû)[39]

Godefried Haeck, First Western Pharmacist in Japan

In July 1669 the young pharmacist Godefried/Gottfried Haeck arrived at Dejima. While he was not the mature specialist that the Japanese authorities had in mind,[40] on several occasions between August 1669 and June 1671 he was ordered to search for useful plants in the vicinity of Nagasaki. His interpreters (Kafuku Kichizaemon,[41] Nakajima Seizaemon,[42] Tominaga Ichirôbei,[43] and Narabayashi Shin'emon[44]) noted the Western and Japanese names as well as the medicinal properties of the herbs he was able to identify.

The results of his first two excursions are preserved in the manuscript 'Medicinal Herbs and their Japanese Descriptions' (Yakusô no na narabi ni wabun no hikae).[45] Dates and contents are consistent with the diary kept at the Dutch trading post. Later manuscripts, such as ‘Medicinal Effects of Herbs and Trees in the Dutch Tradition’ (Ranpô sôki nôdoku shû, fig. 2 ), include further herbs from other field trips. These descriptions of local Japanese plants seen through European eyes eventually found their way into the influential Compass of Dutch Surgery (Oranda geka shinan), printed in 1696.[46]

Much to the irritation of the Japanese authorities, the Dutch never delivered the spice plants they had wanted. Although the trading-post heads did not explain explicitly the reasons for this refusal, the Japanese interpreters were well aware of the obstacles. Once, after conveying another request, they made a proposal to save face on both sides:

Obviously they knew very well that the East India Company guarded its dominance in the global spice trade. Only a few years earlier, in 1667, the Dutch had finally captured the clove monopoly by destroying the trees on various islands of the Moluccas and concentrating the crop on Ambon.

Fig. 3   The “oil extraction house”" (abura tori ie) on Dejima (from a map by Motogi Shôdayu, 17c., Motoki Collection, Nagasaki Municipal Museum)[48]

Franz Braun’s Distillation at Dejima

In the summer of 1671, Frans/Franz Braun, an experienced German pharmacist, arrived with distillation instruments, various seeds and living plants.[49] He too had to look for useful herbs in the vicinity of Nagasaki and to give advice on the cultivation and qualities of medicinal plants. At least parts of these efforts are preserved in an illustrated scroll ('Pictorial Mirror of Dutch Plants').[50] There were even plans to translate the most famous herbal book of its time, Hortus Eystettensis (Garden of Eichstaedt), which contained details of over a thousand plants.[51]

Braun had brought a European distillation unit and various vessels. At the shôgun’s expense, a hut was built in a corner of the trading post, and in April 1672 he demonstrated the production of pharmaceutical oils in the presence of Japanese officials. A few days later, samples were taken to the court in Edo by the trading-post head. During the following weeks, Braun produced oil from fennel, aniseed, clove, rosemary, camphor and juniper berry. These oils were also presented to the imperial councillors and to the shôgun himself.

Six Japanese interpreters translated the instructions given by Braun, whom they call an abuteikiru (apothecary). They also sketched the oven, the vessels, the cooling pipes and barrel etc. and even took measures (fig. 4). After a month of instructions, Japanese physicians were able to produce clove oil and turpentine oil without any help:

The transfer of technical knowledge went smoothly. For about a decade, heads of the trading post left notes about the distillation performed at Dejima, most of which was of oil produced from cloves. When, in 1668, Arashiyama Hoan received one of the rare licences issued by the trading-post surgeon, he had learned about distillation only from illustrations.[54] However, physicians who were sent to Nagasaki now had the chance to acquire practical skills in the 'oil extracting house' (fig. 3).[55]

Fig. 4   Distillation apparatus used on Dejima in 1672. (Oranda yudôgu sunpô no zu narabini zenpô sho. Kyûshû University Medical Library)[56]

Fading Interest at the Court in Edo

During the 1670s some oils produced at Dejima were sent to Edo as part of the annual gifts to the shôgun. The famous diplomatic records of Tokugawa Shôgunate (Tsûkô-ichiran) state the names of things considered to be of some importance. Clove oil (chôjiyu)[57] appeared sometime in 1677 and in 1679, and from 1680 to 1689 it is registered annually.[58] However, in 1682 the head of the Dutch trading post was told by the Japanese authorities that henceforth clove oil for the emperor and his councillors should be sent in bottles from Batavia, packed in cases made especially for this purpose.[59]

This fading interest of government officials in the activities at Dejima may have been related to a change in attitude brought about by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709). Unfortunately there is no Japanese source material directly related to this question. Problems with cultivating the imported seeds and plants also played a role. When the Dutch gardener inspected the emperor’s garden ('#8217;s keizers tuin) in the spring of 1672, the seeds had not germinated and all but three or four plants brought to Japan on the ship Tulpenburgh had withered.[60] Other seeds were delivered later, but again almost none survived. Furthermore, as spice plants and spice seeds were never brought to Japan, the dependence on Dutch deliveries of cinnamon oil, fennel oil, clove oil etc. continued.

Growing Dutch Interest in Japanese Plants

It was always the Japanese who took the initiative in this affair, but the Dutch East India Company soon began to pursue its own interests. Since 1667 Andreas Cleyer (1634-97/98),[61] a German physician who ran the two pharmacies and the herb garden in Batavia, had been responsible for the Company’s internal supply of drugs and medicaments. He turned to the east-Asian Materia Medica to find suitable substitutes for the expensive and sometimes damaged goods delivered from the Netherlands.[62] Cleyer took care of the Japanese orders for seeds and herbs, for the distillation equipment and for the dispatch of pharmacists to Nagasaki. Thus, the investigations of Japanese plants by his employees Haeck and Braun provided useful information for his own research. But the governor of Nagasaki rejected all Dutch requests for the export of Japanese plants.

Nevertheless, botanical studies on both sides continued. During the 1680s Cleyer applied to be head of the trading post in Nagasaki for two terms. During his stays in Japan in 1682-83 and 1684-85 he and his ambitious gardener Georg Meister (1653-1713) collected numerous specimens of the local flora as well as Japanese plant drawings.[63] In 1689 the physician and traveller Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1713) arrived in Batavia after many years of extensive botanical research in Persia. Cleyer and others in Batavia drew his attention to the scientific harvest he could gain by conducting comprehensive research into Japanese plants[64].

When Kaempfer left Batavia for Japan in the summer of 1689 he was well prepared for this task. As they had told him in Batavia, the Japanese did not like foreign research on their country – with one exception. Since the 1670s, plant collection was one of the few activities in which foreigners could participate with the consent of local officials.

Fig. 5   Japanese Camphor tree (kusu-no-ki) and a distillation apparatus to produce Camphor depicted in Andreas Cleyer’s “Observatio De Arbore Camphorifera Japonensium Kusnoky dicta”.[69]

Some Implications

The import of distillation apparatus in 1671 and the introduction of distillation techniques during the following years is a remarkable example of the early transfer of Western technological knowledge. It did not happen by chance or as the result of individual ambitions by someone with the right connections. It was an initiative of the Tokugawa government that aimed at an independent domestic production cycle. Nagasaki governors and other officials frequently referred to the shôgun as the source of their request and stressed its importance. All sources related to the events during the late 1660s and early 1670s show that a variety of seed plants were imported by Japan in order to procure the raw material for the distillation of pharmaceutical oils.

At the same time Westerners were asked to investigate plants in the vicinity of Nagasaki. This is a remarkable request, revealing that the authority of traditional Chinese botany in Japan (honzôgaku)[70] had already begun to crumble. Clearly some Japanese were aware of the abundance of plants inside and outside Japan and the limits of the once almighty Chinese herbal book Bencao Gangmu (Honzôkômoku)[71]. This occurred about four decades before Kaibara Ekiken (1630-1714) published his Yamato Honzô (Japanese Plants),[72] a herbal that led to him being named the ‘father of Japanese botany’.

The introduction of Western-style surgical treatment methods provides an interesting example for the numerous consequences even in cases where the intercultural transfer is confined to knowledge of a more practical nature. These activities and events took place many decades before Yoshimune’s policy of promoting the domestic production of herbs while importing and investigating foreign medicinal materials. Our findings suggest strongly that Western science and technology in 17th century Japan as well as the history and concept of Dutch Learning (rangaku) deserve a thorough review.