Gentaku Otsuki

Japanese: 大槻玄沢 - おおつき・げんたく

Year of death: March 30, 1827 (April 25, 1827)
Year of birth: September 28, 1757 (November 9, 1757)
A Dutch scholar of the mid-Edo period. His given name was Shigeshige, his pen name was Iwanami, and Gentaku was his nickname. He was the eldest son of Otsuki Genryo, a physician of the Ichinoseki Domain (Ichinoseki City), a branch of the Sendai Domain. In 1778, he was permitted to travel to Edo to study and became a pupil of Sugita Genpaku, where he studied Dutch under Maeno Ryotaku while also mastering medicine. In October 1785, he set off to study in Nagasaki, returning to the capital in May of the following year. He was soon selected as a physician for the main domain of the Sendai Domain and stationed in Edo. He took this opportunity to establish his own private school, Shirando, where he educated many talented scholars, including Hashimoto Muneyoshi, Inamura Sanpaku, Udagawa Genshin, and Yamamura Saisuke. On the other hand, following the wishes of his teacher Genpaku, he translated the prologue to Heistel's surgical text (Shoi Shinsho) and translated an abridged version of the main text, and then, at his teacher's command, he began revising Kaitai Shinsho in 1790, completing it in Bunka 1 (1804). This was the Jyu-Tai Kaitai Shinsho (1821). In the same year, the Russian envoy Rezanov arrived in Nagasaki accompanied by four castaways from the territory of the Sendai domain, but in March of the following year, he was refused trade and departed, leaving the castaways behind. The Sendai domain took them in, and Gentaku, at the domain's command, interviewed the castaways' personal histories, and based on this, he wrote Kankai Ibun, which he presented to the domain's lord. This was in Bunka 4 (1807), when frequent incidents of violence by Russian ships occurred in the northern seas and the Sendai domain was ordered to send forces. Gentaku knew that the unrest in Europe, which had started with the French Revolution, was spreading to East Asia, and felt a sense of crisis about the advance of Britain, which was allied with Russia, into East Asia. He wrote "Hokagei Mondo" (A Dialogue on the Effect of a Shadow of the ... <References> Shigeo Otsuki (ed.), "Iwami Sonkyou"; "Research on Gensai Otsuki" (ed.), History of Western Studies Research Society

(Sato Shosuke)

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

Japanese:

没年：文政10.3.30(1827.4.25)
生年：宝暦7.9.28(1757.11.9)
江戸中期の蘭学者。名は茂質,号は磐水,玄沢は通称。仙台藩の支封一関藩(一関市)の藩医大槻玄梁の長子。安永7(1778)年に江戸遊学を許されて杉田玄白の門に入り,医術を修めるかたわら,前野良沢に蘭語を学んだ。天明5(1785)年10月に長崎遊学の途につき,翌年5月に帰府し,まもなく本藩仙台藩の藩医に抜擢されて,江戸定詰となった。これを機に家塾芝蘭堂を設け,橋本宗吉,稲村三伯,宇田川玄真,山村才助ら多くの俊才を育てた。他方,師の玄白の意を体して,ハイステルの外科書の序章(『瘍医新書』)の訳述および本文の抄訳にたずさわり,次いで師命によって寛政2(1790)年『解体新書』の改訂に着手,文化1(1804)年にいちおう完了した。『重訂解体新書』(1821)がこれである。同年,ロシア使節レザーノフが仙台藩領の漂流民4名を伴って長崎に来航したが,翌年3月交易を拒絶されたため,漂流民を残して退去した。仙台藩は彼らを引き取り,玄沢は藩命でこれら漂流民の事歴を聴取して,これを基に『環海異聞』を著し,藩主に献上した。北方海域でロシア船の暴行事件が頻発し,仙台藩が出兵を命ぜられた文化4(1807)年のことである。フランス革命に端を発するヨーロッパの動乱が東アジアにおよびつつあることを玄沢は知っていただけに,ロシアと同盟関係にあるイギリスの東アジア進出に危機感をいだき,『捕影問答』を著して,これを伊達家出身の若年寄堀田正敦に呈上した。意見は幕閣で取り上げられ,その結果,蘭館長ドゥーフへの質問が繰り返し行われるなど,幕府の対外政策に深くかかわることになった。文化8年に幕命により,『厚生新編』の名で知られるショメールの百科事典の翻訳にたずさわり,のちにその写本をひそかに自藩の庫に収めた。これが『生計纂要』と改名されて,今日まで伝えられている。こうして玄沢は,その後半生を通じて,本格的な医学研究からはずれた道を歩み,その生涯を閉じた。江戸高輪の東禅寺に葬られた。著作は静嘉堂大槻文庫,早稲田大学洋学文庫に収められている。<参考文献>大槻茂雄編『磐水存響』,洋学史研究会編『大槻玄沢の研究』

(佐藤昌介)

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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