XI. KŌZAEMON TOSHIO AND RYŌTAKU MAENO. RYŌTAKU GOES TO NAGASAKI.

Here is another incident, though I have forgotten what year it happened.  In the spring, Kōzaemon came to Edo, accompanying Dutchmen as usual.

The lady mother of Feudal Lord Masaka Okudaira of Nahatsu clan broke her shinbone in her Edo residence.  Being of a great family, she caused much anxiety.  Many doctors were called in.  It was fortunate that Kōzaemon Yoshio was in Edo and he too was ordered to attend to her.  Under his treatment, the lady was cured smoothly.  Ryōtaku Maeno, the court physician in charge on this occasion, had constant contact with Kōzaemon and became well acquainted with him.

Dr. Ogata's note: It was 1769, the 6th year of Meiwa Era

This encounter between these two persons is considered one of the promotive agencies in the cause of Dutch learning in Japan.  Sometime later when Ryōtaku followed his liege lord to Nakatsu, he begged to be allowed to go to Nagasaki for study.

He stayed in Nagasaki for about a hundred days.  Mainly guided by Yoshio and Narabayashi, he studied the Dutch language to the best of his ability.  On the basis of the words contained in the Ruigo which had been referred to him by Bunzō Aoki, he reviewed and revised his Dutch knowledge.  With some new acquisitions, he mastered a little over 700 words this time.  Further, he took notes on the forms of Dutch letters and the constructions of sentences orally transmitted to him before he left Nagasaki.  Also, he brought back a few volumes of Dutch books which he purchased.  This event was the first attempt by a man who went to Nagasaki for the purpose of studying the Dutch language as such and not in connection with surgical art.

Dr. Ogata's note: This was in 1770, that is, the 7th year of Meiwa Era

Dr. Ogata's note: It seems that there had been handed down no such book as Ruigo.  Probably, it was a sort of wordbook obtained from an interpreter

XII. 'CONVERSATION.' GENNAI HIRAGA. CRANS AND GENNAI.

By this time, people had become aware that Holland was a country well advanced in medicine and other arts, and they happily accepted her influence.  It was about this time that some scholars, mostly official doctors, petitioned for "conversations" with the Dutchmen who came up to Edo annually.

Thus some doctors visited them at their hotel to inquire on such matters as medical treatment and prescription, and some astronomers on their own specialties.  In those days, the Japanese scholars were free to take their pupils along to the Dutchmen's hotels.  Very often, therefore, some Japanese enjoyed access to a Dutchman under the pretense of being a pupil to a scholar.  It was forbidden in Nagasaki for a Japanese to call at a Dutchman's abode without permit, but there was no such role in Edo since Dutch stayed there usually for a short period.

There was then a masterless samurai (rōnin) named Gennai Hiraga.  His chief interest was in botany, but he was naturally quick at reason and was of brilliant mind, exactly the man for the time.  One day - what year I do not recall - when Crans was in Edo as Capitan, some people were having a drinking bout at Crans's hotel and Gennai was present too.  For fun, Crans produced a money bag, and said that the money inside would be given to the person who might open it, for the mouth of the bag was devised with a "puzzle ring."  The people there tried one after another, but none of them could manage it.  Finally, the bag came to Gennai sitting at the end seat.  He took it up.  After a moment's thought, he opened it beautifully.  All the people there including Crans admired Gennai for his keen mind.  The bag was given to Gennai.  This made Crans and Gennai friends.  Gennai saw Crans often after that, and learned much from him on natural history.

One day, Crans showed Gennai a so-called "slangensteen" which looked like a go stone in shape.  Gennai asked what it was for, went home, made one exactly like it, and showed it to Crans the following day.  Crans said it was the same thing that he had shown Gennai on the previous day.  Gennai asked Crans if his article was made in Holland or some other country.  He answered that he had bought it in Ceylon, a district of India.  Gennai further asked in what part of that country it was produced.  Crans explained: "According to a tradition of that country, it was made of the stone found in the head of a huge serpent."  Gennai said: "That is not likely.  This was probably made of a dragon's bone."  Crans responded: "Oh, no, there exists no such thing as a dragon.  How could anything be made of its bone?"

Gennai, thereupon, produced a thing believed to be the bone adjoining the big dragon's teeth, and which had been found in the Shōdojima Island, Sanuki, his home province.

He went on to say that according to the Epitome of Botany (Honzō-kōmoku) published in China, a serpent casts off its skin, whereas a dragon changes its bones, and that the "slangensteen" he was displaying had been made of the bone of a dragon.  Crans stood amazed at Gennai's extensive knowledge.  He bought a copy of the Epitome of Botany, and was presented with a piece of dragon's bone.  To return Gennai's kindness, Crans made a present of such useful books on natural history as Jan Jonston's Nauwkeurige Beschryving van de Natuur der Viervoetige Dieren, Vissen en Bloedlooze Water-Dieren, Vogelen, Kronkel-Dieren, Slangen en Dragen, Amsterdam, 1660; Rembertus Dodonaeus's Cruydt-Boeck, Antwerp, 1664; and G. E. Rumphius's L'Amboinsche Rariteikamer, 1705.

Needless to say, these talks between Crans and Gennai were not carried on directly, but through an interpreter; there is no telling whether they - every word and sentence - were correctly communicated.

After this event, Gennai went to Nagasaki and brought bad some Dutch books and utensils besides a strange looking electrostatic generator which the Japanese then called "Erekiteru."  Showing how it worked, Gennai surprised people.

Dr. Ogata's note: Probably 1769.  He was born a son of Mozaemon Shiraishi, low rank retainer of Feudal Lord Matsudaira of Takamatsu Clan.  He was not only a herbalist but a novelist, who published books in each of the lines.  Also, he was a painter in Western style.  He died in 1779 in prison

XIII. JUN-AN NAKAGAWA. 1771 (THE 8TH YEAR OF MEIWA ERA). ONTLEEDKUNDIGE TAFELEN, CASPARUS BARTHOLINUS' ANATOMIA NOVA, AND I.

Such was the general atmosphere of Japan with reference to Dutch language and Dutch things.  There were no people well acquainted with them, but at the same time they no longer had to pretend indifference to them.  The possession of a Dutch book was not openly permitted, but here and there we came across persons who possessed one.  Certainly,  the times were changing.

Jun-an Nakagawa (1739-1786) of the same clan as mine was a herbalist, and was very anxious to study Dutch natural history.  Ransui Tamura and Seiko Tamura, two other scholars in that line, were also eager comrades in Dutch learning.  They always sought contact with the interpreters who came to Edo every spring.  In 1771 (the 8th year of Meiwa Era), as I remember, Jun-an visited the hotel where some Dutchmen were staying, and he was shown the two illustrated books on the internal structure of the human body; the Ontleedkundige Tafelen and Casparus Bartholinus's Anatomia Nova.

Dr. Ogata's note: The regular hotel for Dutchmen at Honkoku-chō, where Capitan Daniel Armenault, Surgeon Ikarius Jacobus Kotijk and Hatsuzaemon Namura were staying

Translator's note: This is the book which was later translated into Japanese by Sugita and his colleagues.  It came to be called Taheru Anatomia corruptly by the contemporary Japanese scholars, and it is generally referred to by that name even today.  However, in the present translation, its true name, Ontleedkundige Tafalen, is used

XIV. DESIRE TO TRANSLATE DUTCH BOOKS INTO JAPANESE.

So often when I met Gennai Hiraga and others, we would say to each other: "The more we become aware of Dutch learning, the more strongly we are impressed by their empirical spirit.  It would be a great benefit if we should translate these books into Japanese.  It is a pity that so far no one has tried it.  Really, we must somehow find a way.  Dallying away time in Edo like this, we can accomplish nothing.  We might get some interpreters of Nagasaki to make out the contents of those books.  Even just one volume of them, if rendered into Japanese, would ever be of immense value to the nation!  Seeing, however, no prospect of the sort, we would only draw deep breaths in despair and feel aggrieved at our helplessness.

XV. INFORMATION OF A DISSECTION ON MARCH 3, 1771 (MARCH 3, THE 8TH YEAR OF MEIWA ERA).

Now that those books of anatomy so unexpectedly had come into my hands, I was very anxious to compare their illustrations with the real things.  Perhaps the time had come for the opening of the learning.  I should say; it was indeed wonderful, even miraculous, that I came into possession of those books in spring.

It was, as I remember, on the night of March 3, 1771, I received a letter from Manbei Tokunō, a retainer of the Town Magistrate of Edo, Kainokami Magaribuchi, kindly inviting me to be present at a dissection held by a certain official doctor on the following day at Kotsugahara, Senju.

There was a man called Genteki Kosugi, a fellow doctor who once told me the following story.  When he was studying medicine under Tōyō Yamawaki of Kyōto, he attended a dissection sponsored by his teacher.  Judging from what he saw, he found that all the knowledge handed down by ancestors entirely wrong; they were all empty fabrications.  Also, I had heard that the traditional theory of "nine viscera," later renamed "five viscera and six entrails" was most inaccurate.

Dr. Ogata's note: February 7, 1754

After this dissection, Tōyō put out the book Zōshi.  I was familiar with this book too, and was very much interested to inspect human entrails myself when an opportunity should offer itself.

Therefore, at this time particularly when I had acquired the Dutch book of anatomy, I was happy to have the opportunity of determining for myself which was true to fact, the traditional or the Dutch.  I was rejoicing beyond description, and was restlessly looking forward to the appointed time.

That such good luck should not be kept all to myself was my thought.  I decided to give the information to some of my friends in the same profession so that we could study together and share the benefit.  First of all, I wrote to Jun-an Nakagawa and some others.  Of course, I did not omit Ryōtaku Maeno.  Ryōtaku was ten years my senior.  We were well acquainted, but rarely saw each other, for he was so much older than myself.  Both of us, however, being devoted to medicine, I would never omit him on such occasion.

The time was pressing.  Because some Dutchmen were in town at that time and I was at their hotel, I came home late.  There was no way of making a quick contact with Ryōtaku.  It occurred to me then that I should first write a letter.  Carrying the letter addressed to him with me, I called on a friend for advice.  We concluded by employing a palanquine-carrier who was waiting for hire at the streetgate of Honkaku-chō, and told him to take the letter to Ryōtaku's.  The letter referred to the coming event and advised Ryōtaku to meet me at a tea house near the exit of Sanya-chō, Asakusa, early in the morning, if he wanted to attend the event.  We told the man to just deliver the letter; don't wait for the answer.