Historical Collection: Speaking to the Future Series Chinese Books from the Igakukan Medical Academy

The Igakukan medical academy, established during the late Edo period, was the official medical education and research institute of the Edo government. Prior to becoming a public facility in 1791, the Igakukan was a private academy known as Seijukan. It was established in 1765 by Taki Mototaka, physician to the Edo shogunate and a purported descendant of the Tanba clan, an eminent family of physicians from the Heian period. Taki Motoyasu, Mototane and Motokata later emerged from the family line to follow in Mototaka's footsteps, and the school remained a dynamic center for the study of Chinese medicine until the end of the Edo period.

Scholars at the Igakukan studied ancient Chinese medical treatises, influenced by the Qing-dynasty trend of studying classical texts. They collected many Chinese books, and annotated and reprinted important texts such as the Taiping Shenghui Feng catalogue of remedies and the ancient Inner Canon of Huangdi (C., Huangdi Neijing) medical treatise.

This exhibition showcases Chinese medical treatises and transcriptions of classical texts which were transferred from the Igakukan to the Tokyo National Museum during the Meiji period. It examines the scholarship of successive generations of the Taki clan and their disciples based on these materials, and also features publications by other Igakukan graduates such as Shibue Chusai and Mori Risshi, who made lasting academic contributions to medicine as well as other fields of scholarship.