Baelz, Erwin von

Japanese: ベルツ - Ｂａｅｌｚ，Ｅｒｗｉｎｖｏｎ

Year of death: 1913.8.31 (1913.8.31)
Born: January 13, 1849
He was a foreign teacher and physician employed in Japan during the Meiji period. He was a teacher at Tokyo Medical School, the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine, and the Imperial University Medical School, and finally served as a consultant to the Imperial Household Agency, and had a major impact on the westernization of Japanese medical education and medical care. He was born in Bietigheim, a rural town in the Swabian region of Germany, and graduated from high school in Stuttgart before entering the medical school at the University of Tübingen in 1866. He studied basic medicine there, and then clinical medicine at the University of Leipzig. During this time, he served in the military during the Franco-Prussian War. After temporarily interrupting his studies, he returned to school and graduated in 1872. He joined the internal medicine department of Undelrich (who first used thermometers clinically). In 1876 (Meiji 9), he signed a two-year contract with Aoki Shuzo, the Japanese envoy to Germany, in Berlin to become a teacher of physiology and internal medicine. He took up his post at Tokyo Medical School in June of the same year. He lived in the foreign teacher's residence, which was the former residence of the Kanazawa (Kaga) domain in Hongo. When his contract expired in 1898, he was asked by the Japanese side to extend it for another three years. He renewed it several times after that, but in the 1890s, Japanese professors began to alienate Bälz, so he decided to return to Japan, and retired the year after his 25th anniversary in office in 1901. During his time in Japan, he opened up the fields of Japanese parasitology, physiotherapy including balneotherapy, physical anthropology, and psychiatry, promoted traditional martial arts such as judo to promote health, built his own villas in Ikaho and Hayama, and promoted climate therapy, including the hot springs of Kusatsu. He had a wide circle of friends, including high-ranking government officials and foreigners in Japan, and was particularly close to Ito Hirobumi, to whom he also gave advice on diplomacy. After returning to Japan in 1903, he lived in Stuttgart and was active in the anthropology world. He died of an aneurysm. His wife Hana returned to Japan after Bälz's death, and died in Japan in 1937, and is buried at Saimyoji Temple in Toyokawa City, Aichi Prefecture. The temple has a memorial tower for Baelz that Hana built in the same year. There are monuments to Baelz in the Tokyo University Kouchi area, Hayama, Kusatsu, and Ikaho, but all of them were erected after Baelz's death, except for the one erected at Tokyo University in 1907.

(Shizu Sakai)

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

Japanese:

没年：1913.8.31(1913.8.31)
生年：1849.1.13
明治期に来日したお雇い外国人教師,内科医。東京医学校,東大医学部,帝大医科大学の指導者として,また最後は宮内庁御用掛として日本の医学教育,医療の西洋化に大きな影響を与えた。ドイツのシュワーベン地方の田舎町ビーチッヒハイムに生まれ,シュツットガルトの高校を出て,1866年にチュービンゲン大学医学部に入学。ここで基礎医学まで学び,次いでライプチヒ大学で臨床医学を学ぶ。この間,普仏戦争のために兵役に従事。一時学業を中断したのち,復学して1872年に卒業。ウンデルリッヒ(体温計を臨床的に使い始めた人)の内科学教室に入る。明治9(1876)年,ベルリンで駐独日本公使青木周蔵と生理学兼内科学のお雇い教師になることを契約(2カ年)。同年6月に東京医学校に着任。本郷の金沢(加賀)藩邸跡のお雇い外国人教師館に住む。同11年契約満期に日本側の懇請で契約をさらに3年延期。それからのちも契約更新を再三行ったが,明治30年代になると,日本人教授がベルツを疎外するようになったために帰国を決意して,同34年に行われた在職25年記念の翌年退官した。在日中に研究面では日本の寄生虫学,温泉療法をはじめとする物理療法,形質人類学,精神医学の分野を開き,柔道など古来の武道を奨励して健康増進をはかることを進め,伊香保,葉山には自分の別荘を作り,草津の温泉を含めて転地療法を推奨した。交友関係は高位高官,在日外国人など広く,とりわけ伊藤博文と深い親交があり,外交面の助言も行った。同38年に帰国後,シュツットガルトに住み,人類学界で活躍。動脈瘤で死去。夫人花はベルツの没後に日本に帰国して,昭和12(1937)年に日本で死去し,愛知県豊川市西明寺に葬られる。同寺には花が同5年に建てたベルツの供養塔がある。ベルツ顕彰碑は東大講内,葉山,草津,伊香保にあるが,明治40年に東大に建てられたもの以外は,すべてベルツの没後に建てられたものである。<著作>『ベルツの日記』

(酒井シヅ)

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