Practical pursuits : Takano Chōei, Takahashi Keisaku, and western medicine in nineteenth-century Japan / Ellen Gardner Nakamura.

Author
Nakamura, Ellen Gardner, 1971- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Asia Center : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2005.
Description
1 online resource (xiv, 236 pages) : maps

Availability

Available Online

Details

Subject(s)
Series
Harvard East Asian monographs ; 255. [More in this series]
Summary note
"The history of Western medicine in the late Tokugawa period is usually depicted as a prelude to modern medicine. By comparison to the Western medical science that was systematically introduced in the Meiji period, the Tokugawa study of Western learning is often seen as a hopelessly backward exercise in which inadequately equipped Japanese doctors valiantly struggled to make sense of outdated Dutch knowledge. In contrast, this book argues that the study of Western medicine was a dynamic activity that brought together doctors from all over the country in efforts to effect social change." "By examining the social impact of Western learning at the level of everyday life rather than simply its impact at the theoretical level, the book offers a broad picture of the way in which Western medicine, and Western knowledge, was absorbed and adapted in Japan."--Jacket
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Source of description
Print version record.
Contents
  • Preliminary Material
  • Introduction
  • Takano Chōei and the Medical Arena
  • The Kōzuke Physicians: Rangaku in the Countryside
  • Famine, Epidemics, and the Social Role of Physicians
  • "The Way of Medicine": Takahashi Keisaku's Daily Work
  • Ranpō Medicine and Practical Pursuits
  • Treatise on Two Things for the Relief of Famine
  • Methods of Avoiding Epidemic Diseases
  • Works Cited
  • Index
  • Harvard East Asian Monographs.
ISBN
  • 9781684174225 ((electronic bk.))
  • 1684174228 ((electronic bk.))
OCLC
607608408
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