Shunzan Suzuki

Japanese: 鈴木春山 - すずき・しゅんさん

Year of death: 10th May 1846 (3rd June 1846)
Year of birth: Kyowa 1 (1801)
A doctor of Western medicine and military scholar in the late Edo period. His given name was Tsuyoshi, his pen name was Jikyo, and he was commonly known as Shunjiro (the name he was given when he entered the Kan'i-en school), or Shunzan. His pen name was Doura. He was an illegitimate son of his father Gentsu, a doctor in the Tahara domain of Mikawa Province (Aichi Prefecture). His birth mother Sono was an enthusiastic follower of Higashi Hongan-ji Temple (a Myokonin). In Bunsei 11 (1814), he studied medicine under Asai Chozan in Okazaki, and later went to Edo to study Chinese classics under Asakawa Zen'an. He studied in Nagasaki from 1826 to 1821, during which time he may have studied Dutch. On his way back in 1821, he became a disciple of Hirose Tanso at Kan'i-en in Hita, Bungo, where he met Hirose Kyokuso. After returning to Japan in 1822, his request to become the legitimate son was accepted. The following year, 1823, he met Watanabe Kazan for the first time at Miyake Tomonobu's Sugamo residence in Edo. During his stay in Edo in 1835, he became acquainted with Dutch studies scholars led by Kazan, and together with Takano Choei, he translated the book on three military strategies, Heigaku Shoshiki. He also independently translated Sanbukatsuho (translation in 1846) and Kaijo Koueishetsu (a summary of maritime offensives and defenses) (year of translation unknown). When the Bansha no Goku incident occurred (1839), he was busy helping to rescue Kazan, comforted him after his isolation in Tahara, and was stationed in Edo after Kazan's death. His Edo residence was the residence of Katsuragawa Hoshu, a physician in the shogunate, on Nakadori Street, just before Tsukiji Monzeki. He devoted himself to the study and translation of military studies at the request of the times, but he contracted cholera and died. Fellow Dutch studies scholars were interested in the fate of Shunzan's book collection. <References> Mori Senzo, People in the History of Academic Arts; Sato Shosuke, An Introduction to the Study of the History of Western Studies; Sugiura Meihei, Searching for Kazan

(Tetsushi Iwasaki)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：弘化3.5.10(1846.6.3)
生年：享和1(1801)
江戸後期の蘭方医,兵学者。諱は強,字は自強,通称は春二郎(咸宜園の入門記帳名),春山。号は童浦。三河国(愛知県)田原藩医の父玄通の庶子。生母の園は東本願寺の熱狂的な信者(妙好人)。文化11(1814)年岡崎の浅井朝山に医を習い,その後江戸に出て朝川善庵に漢学を習う。文政9(1826)年から同11年まで長崎留学,このとき,オランダ語学習の可能性がある。同11年帰途に豊後日田の咸宜園広瀬淡窓に入門し,広瀬旭荘を知る。帰国後の同12年嫡子願いが受理された。翌13年三宅友信の江戸巣鴨邸で渡辺崋山と初対面。天保6(1835)年の江戸滞在中に崋山を盟主とする蘭学研究者と交わり,高野長英と三兵戦術書『兵学小識』の共訳もある。独自には『三兵活法』(1846訳),『海上攻守略説』(翻訳年未詳)がある。蛮社の獄(1839)が起きると崋山救援活動に奔走し,田原蟄居後の崋山を慰め,崋山没後は江戸詰となった。江戸の居所は築地門跡手前中通りの幕府奥医師桂川甫周屋敷。時代の要請で兵学研究・翻訳に没頭したが,コレラにかかり死亡。蘭学者仲間内では春山蔵書の帰趨に関心が寄せられていた。<参考文献>森銑三『学芸史上の人々』,佐藤昌介『洋学史研究序説』,杉浦明平『崋山探索』

(岩崎鐵志)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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