Studies Abroad by Japanese Doctors: A Prosopographic Analysis of the Nameless Practitioners, 1862-1912

Psychiatric hospital, domestic strategies and gender issues in Tokyo,c. 1920–45

“…From the late nineteenth century onwards, Japan was also swift in catching up with German, French, English and American medical and cultural discourses on syphilis. Many young medical students and practitioners went to Germany and Austria for medical degrees and training, and they also visited France, England and Italy to learn advanced medicine (Donzé, 2010; Kim 2014). The Japanese medical profession and drug companies were important in the study of syphilis.…”

The continuing influence of William Smellie (1697–1763) in Japan during the early Meiji Period (1868–1880s)

“…Active appropriation of western medicine in the early Meiji period caused the evolution to a hybrid Edo and Meiji knowledge and practice, the lather characterized by rapid westernization and ‘enlightened rule’. 3,4 The influence of European obstetrical pioneers, observed during the Edo period, continued during the early Meiji period. A Japanese obstetrical print published in 1880 can be conceived as a representative of this transitional period (Figure 1).…”

“…3 During the Meiji period hundreds of Japanese doctors were trained in western universities, mainly in Germany where the medical elite was trained primarily at the University of Berlin. 4,6 Approximately 7% of these doctors specialized in obstetrics and gynaecology. The Faculty of Medicine of Tokyo University, founded in 1871 was initially staffed by German doctors and from the late 1870s onwards there was an institutionalized connection between the universities of Tokyo and Berlin.…”

“…In 1884 the first Japanese professor in obstetrics and gynaecology was nominated. 4 During the second half of the 1880s privatization of the Japanese health care system boosted studies abroad by private doctors and subsequently modernization of the system itself and medical knowledge. 4…”