Andrew Edmund Goble
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835002
- eISBN:
- 9780824870317
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835002.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This is the first book-length exploration in English of issues of medicine and society in premodern Japan. The book expands the parameters of the study of medicine in East Asia and introduces the ...
More
This is the first book-length exploration in English of issues of medicine and society in premodern Japan. The book expands the parameters of the study of medicine in East Asia and introduces the dynamics of interaction and exchange that coursed through the East Asian macro-culture. It explores these themes primarily through the two extant works of the Buddhist priest and clinical physician Kajiwara Shōzen (1265–1337), who was active at the medical facility housed at Gokurakuji temple in Kamakura, the capital of Japan's first warrior government. Shōzen was a beneficiary of the efflorescence of trade and exchange across the East China Sea that typifies this era. His break with the restrictions of Japanese medicine is revealed in Ton'ishō (Book of the Simple Physician) and Man'apō (Myriad Relief Formulas). Both of these texts are landmarks. This book brings to the fore the range of factors that influenced the Japanese acquisition of Chinese medical information. It offers the first substantive portrait of the impact of the Song printing revolution in medieval Japan and provides a rare glimpse of Chinese medicine as it was understood outside of China. It is further distinguished by its attention to materia medica and medicinal formulas and to the challenges of technical translation and technological transfer in the reception and incorporation of a new pharmaceutical regime.Less
This is the first book-length exploration in English of issues of medicine and society in premodern Japan. The book expands the parameters of the study of medicine in East Asia and introduces the dynamics of interaction and exchange that coursed through the East Asian macro-culture. It explores these themes primarily through the two extant works of the Buddhist priest and clinical physician Kajiwara Shōzen (1265–1337), who was active at the medical facility housed at Gokurakuji temple in Kamakura, the capital of Japan's first warrior government. Shōzen was a beneficiary of the efflorescence of trade and exchange across the East China Sea that typifies this era. His break with the restrictions of Japanese medicine is revealed in Ton'ishō (Book of the Simple Physician) and Man'apō (Myriad Relief Formulas). Both of these texts are landmarks. This book brings to the fore the range of factors that influenced the Japanese acquisition of Chinese medical information. It offers the first substantive portrait of the impact of the Song printing revolution in medieval Japan and provides a rare glimpse of Chinese medicine as it was understood outside of China. It is further distinguished by its attention to materia medica and medicinal formulas and to the challenges of technical translation and technological transfer in the reception and incorporation of a new pharmaceutical regime.
Andrew Edmund Goble
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835002
- eISBN:
- 9780824870317
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835002.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the impact of Song medical texts in medieval Japan and more specifically how they restructured the landscape of knowledge about Japanese medicine. Against a background of the ...
More
This chapter examines the impact of Song medical texts in medieval Japan and more specifically how they restructured the landscape of knowledge about Japanese medicine. Against a background of the scarcity of Japanese medical works and the plethora of information that became available in a new media as a result of the Song printing revolution, the chapter describes the contours of what is best understood as the appropriating context of Song-period Chinese medicine. It also looks at the variety of Song printed medical works as well as some of the works that Kajiwara Shōzen consulted. Some Chinese medical works are noted in the Ton'ishō and others in the Man'anpō. The chapter concludes by discussing the ways in which Shōzen benefited from Song medical knowledge and how print culture in China helped him become familiar with Song-period Chinese medicine.Less
This chapter examines the impact of Song medical texts in medieval Japan and more specifically how they restructured the landscape of knowledge about Japanese medicine. Against a background of the scarcity of Japanese medical works and the plethora of information that became available in a new media as a result of the Song printing revolution, the chapter describes the contours of what is best understood as the appropriating context of Song-period Chinese medicine. It also looks at the variety of Song printed medical works as well as some of the works that Kajiwara Shōzen consulted. Some Chinese medical works are noted in the Ton'ishō and others in the Man'anpō. The chapter concludes by discussing the ways in which Shōzen benefited from Song medical knowledge and how print culture in China helped him become familiar with Song-period Chinese medicine.
Andrew Edmund Goble
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835002
- eISBN:
- 9780824870317
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835002.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter focuses on the disease of rai or leprosy, as a medical issue. Leprosy was one of the most socially, religiously, and medically complex afflictions in medieval Japan. Prior scholarship ...
More
This chapter focuses on the disease of rai or leprosy, as a medical issue. Leprosy was one of the most socially, religiously, and medically complex afflictions in medieval Japan. Prior scholarship has given much attention to leprosy as a social and religious matter—examining issues of discrimination and marginalization and aspects of Buddhist teachings, particularly the notion of karma, that may have justified some discrimination. The first medical description of rai—the symptoms, the nature of the affliction, and the treatments to be used—is provided by Kajiwara Shōzen in Ton'ishō and Man'anpō. This chapter considers Shōzen's initial understanding of the Buddhist etiology of leprosy as a karmic illness as seen in his two medical texts. It shows that the issue of rai is more complex than generally represented and that ideas of rai found in Song-era Chinese medicine led to a substantial reassessment of the disease that invalidated some previous assumptions about it.Less
This chapter focuses on the disease of rai or leprosy, as a medical issue. Leprosy was one of the most socially, religiously, and medically complex afflictions in medieval Japan. Prior scholarship has given much attention to leprosy as a social and religious matter—examining issues of discrimination and marginalization and aspects of Buddhist teachings, particularly the notion of karma, that may have justified some discrimination. The first medical description of rai—the symptoms, the nature of the affliction, and the treatments to be used—is provided by Kajiwara Shōzen in Ton'ishō and Man'anpō. This chapter considers Shōzen's initial understanding of the Buddhist etiology of leprosy as a karmic illness as seen in his two medical texts. It shows that the issue of rai is more complex than generally represented and that ideas of rai found in Song-era Chinese medicine led to a substantial reassessment of the disease that invalidated some previous assumptions about it.
