BEFORE THE MEIJI RESTORATION (1868) SEKGAHARA is a small town near Nagoya located at approximately the center of Honshu Isle, and was a crucial barrier point in the sixteenth century of Japan for the Capital Kyoto, surrounded by three checkpoints called Suzuka, Arachi and Fuwa. On mid-September of 1600, the so-called final Sekigahara Battle took place at the area when the West power, led by Mitsunari Ishida tried to destroy the newly arising East Power, led by Ieyasu Tokugawa. The East power won the battle, Tokugawa become the first Shogun and approximately 260 years of the Edo Period, or the time of Tokugawa shogunate, started until 1868, the year of the Meiji Restoration. The Edo Period, Edo being the old name of the City of Tokyo, was the time of feudalism and general peace of Japan, closed against the outside world, and in particular Japanese cultures such as Ukiyoe painting and Japanese ancient literatures blossomed during this period. However, there were some inevitable interactions from the western countries to the closed Japan, as the period corresponds to the age of adventures in European countries such as Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and Britain. Among them, the Dutch seem to have exerted the greatest influence on the scientific cultures of Japan, particularly in the field of medicine, pharmacology and then chemistry, when they arrived in Japan mainly through the only open port of Nagasaki. The new arising of Dutch and British powers in Europe, particularly after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, directly reflected upon the events that happened in Japan at that time. 1774 was the year of the beginning of the activities of the Dutch school, when the first modern medical book of anatomy of the human body called”Kaitai-Shinsho” was published by MAENO, SUGITA et al. In 1819, SHINSAI UDAGAWA and YOAN UDAGAWA, father and son, published the book “Orunda Yukukyo” meaning “Dutch Medicines” in which they described chemical materials, both natural and man-made, inorganic and organic, the ways of their preparation and identification. etc. This book may be considered the first chemical book in Japan. In 1837 UDAGAWA published twenty-one volumes of “Sehmi Kaiso” or “Introduction to Chemistry”. ” Sehmi” comes from a close Japanese prqnunciation of Dutch “Chemie” and the content of the book consists partially of translations and summaries of two European books, namely, “Epitome of Chemistry” 11801) by the Englishman WILLIAM HENRY and “Chemie ooor Beginnende Liefhebbers” (1803) by the Dutchman AD~LPHUS YPEY. Thus. Chemistry had been introduced for the first time to Japan from Europe. One of the fields of its application was military since the time coincided with revolutional changes of powers against Tokugawa shogunate. This applies to both sides, namely. the Shogunate at Edo and the Lords in the countries. The origin of the firearm in Japan, however, dates back to 1543. The Portuguese brought in a matchlock to an island called Tanegashima near Okinawa isles, “Tanegashima” became the name of the gun.
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Jan 1, 1988
Open Access
Hisashi Kubota + 2