Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian HistoryMain MenuGet to Know the SiteGuided TourShow Me HowA click-by-click guide to using this siteModulesRead the seventeen spatial stories that make up Bodies and Structures 2.0Tag MapExplore conceptsComplete Grid VisualizationDiscover connectionsGeotagged MapFind materials by geographic locationLensesCreate your own visualizationsWhat We LearnedLearn how multivocal spatial history changed how we approach our researchAboutFind information about contributors and advisory board members, citing this site, image permissions and licensing, and site documentationTroubleshootingA guide to known issuesAcknowledgmentsThank youDavid Ambaras1337d6b66b25164b57abc529e56445d238145277Kate McDonald306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5fThis project was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Vaccination Flyer
1media/Shugyutosho high res (1)_thumb.jpg2020-10-28T15:30:08-04:00Maren Ehlers18502c6775e5db37b999ee7b08c8c075867ca31d355Advertisement for smallpox vaccinations and eye medicine, issued by a physician at Fujisawa post station on the Tōkaidō Highway in 1856. The lower left quadrant shows a physician vaccinating children in the presence of family members. The upper right quadrant depicts three methods for children to cross the Sanzu River (River of Three Crossings)--a station on the way to the underworld according to Buddhist tradition, but here shown as a roadblock on the way to adulthood. The first and riskiest method (swimming) is compared to infection with natural smallpox. The second-riskiest method (by boat) is marked as variolation with the human smallpox virus. The safest method (by bridge) is associated with cowpox vaccination, and children are shown to be crossing the bridge comfortably on the back of a cow. In the background, towards the right, Gozu Tennō ("ox-headed heavenly king") , a protective deity believed to ward off epidemic disease, watches over children marching to the Grand Shrines of Ise. On the left, a devil is leading a blinded, pock-marked child away.plain2020-10-29T09:10:20-04:00Shiga University of Medical Science Library20061201102352+090020061201102352+0900Maren Ehlers18502c6775e5db37b999ee7b08c8c075867ca31d
1media/shugyutosho.background.jpeg2019-11-18T17:16:25-05:00The Spatio-Temporality of Virus and Vaccine12plain46612020-11-12T12:38:31-05:00Maren EhlersOne of the most memorable chapters in the history of smallpox vaccination in Japan is the story of the vaccine's importation. In the decades before 1849, Japanese and Dutch physicians arranged for the vaccine to be sent from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies or from China on several occasions, but failed each time because the virus did not survive the long sea journey through tropical climates. In 1849, Japanese physicians finally succeeded at reconstituting the vaccine from scabs brought to Nagasaki on a Dutch ship and immunized a local child. Within Japan, the vaccine could be moved more easily through arm-to-arm transmission. But distribution still hinged on the presence of a network of physicians who were willing to share the vaccine rather than monopolize it as a potentially lucrative source of income.
The tale of the importation and spread of the vaccine has already received much attention [Jannetta]. But there is another, equally important aspect to the story of the vaccine that has only begun to be told: its perpetuation over time. Because of the spatial and temporal limitations of the biological properties of the cowpox vaccine, physicians faced major hurdles in trying to keep it in circulation. As Yanagisawa Fumiko has noted, the vaccination rate in Fukui prefecture (which roughly overlaps with Echizen province) only crossed the eighty-percent mark in the second half of the 1880s [Yanagisawa, 2018, p. 59]. This figure suggests that even under the centralized structure of the Meiji state with its emphasis on public health, the goal of full coverage was not easy to attain.
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