Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

Introduction of the Vaccine to Ōno Domain

The transmission to Ōno domain constitutes a typical example of vaccine sharing between domains in Echizen province. Ōno's case also shows how domain lords benefited from the transregional networks of their local physicians. Whereas in Fukui domain the initiative came from a town doctor, the lord of Ōno, who actively promoted Dutch Learning, used domain doctors to bring the treatment to his domain. 

The two leaders of Ōno's vaccination program, Tsuchida Ryūwan and Hayashi Unkei, were both physicians in direct service of the lord. The lord had sent them to Osaka in 1845 to study with two prestigious scholars of Dutch medicine, Ogata Kōan and Kō Ryōsai. Unlike Fukui's ruler, Ōno's lord Doi Toshitada had a long-standing interest in Dutch Learning. Whenever he was in Edo on tours of alternate attendance, he occasionally invited prominent scholars such as Sugita Seikei, Koseki San’ei, and Takami Senseki to his mansion for personal lectures. Toshitada also encouraged Dutch Learning among his vassals and physicians. Besides, he probably had a strong personal motive for bringing the smallpox vaccine to Ōno. In the spring of 1849, smallpox claimed the life of his infant son and heir, shortly before the vaccine reached Japan’s shores. Though neither Tsuchida Ryūwan nor Hayashi Unkei had studied with Kasahara Hakuō, their training in Osaka imbedded them in the same medical lineages as Kasahara Hakuō and Hakuō's teacher Hino Teisai.

News of the vaccine's importation quickly reached Toshitada. In the 10th month of 1849, before the vaccine had even spread to Fukui, he entrusted Tsuchida Ryūwan with some funds from his private purse to bring the vaccine to Ōno. Early in 1850, domain physician Hayashi Unkei as well as town doctor Nakamura Taisuke went to Fukui to formally ask Kasahara Hakuō for a transmission. Like all the other physicians who received transmissions from Hakuō, the two men had to sign the vaccinators’ oath. The extant copy of the oath shows both men’s signatures under the date of 2/14 [insert image].

While in Fukui, Unkei and Taisuke vaccinated the “small child of a tobacco dealer” and brought the toddler back to Ōno. After seven days they transferred the lymph to three more children (Iwaji, p. 105; check other) and from there to another three and so on to build the foundation for a self-sustaining program. 

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